Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 273: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if an end will be put to the unfair and illogical policy of State payment of private school teachers and public subsidisation of these schools in general. [5912/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The State has traditionally paid the salaries of teachers in fee paying schools for a number of reasons. Considerations of State support for minority religions have been important, given that much of the fee paying sector has traditionally been made up of Protestant schools and those with a minority religious ethos. Practical considerations are also important. For example, if fee paying schools were to close and the pupils were to move to the non-fee paying sector, the cost to the State would be higher as non-fee paying schools get capitation funding as well as provision by the State for the costs of teachers' salary. The funding of teacher salaries in fee paying schools by the State has been a long standing feature of our education system and one continued by successive Governments.