John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 267: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the categories of funding, other than [i]per capita[/i] grants, available to fee paying schools from her Department; the amount of such funding under each category paid in respect of fee paying schools by her Department in each of the past five years; the number of fee paying schools that benefited from such funding in each of the past five years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37333/06]

John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 268: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the categories of funding, other than [i]per capita[/i] grants, available to non-fee paying schools from her Department; the amount of such funding under each category paid in respect of non-fee paying schools by her Department in each of the past five years; the number of non-fee paying schools that benefited from such funding in each of the past five years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37334/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 267 and 268 together.

The information sought by the Deputy is not readily available in my Department and would require an inordinate amount of staff time to assemble. The Deputy will appreciate that my Department provides aid to all recognised schools under a variety of headings, eg., teachers salaries, transition year support grant, secretarial and caretaking grants, supervision and substitution, capital funding etc.

There are 59 fee-charging second level schools in the country; of which one is Jewish, 21 Protestant, 2 inter-denominational and the balance Catholic. These schools, with the exception of the special arrangements that apply in respect of the Protestant and Jewish schools, do not receive capitation or related supports. The Protestant and Jewish schools receive funding mainly by way of a Block grant, which has its origins in the desire of the State to enable pupils of the Protestant and Jewish persuasion to attend schools, which reflect their denominational ethos.

In the case of Protestant schools, the grant is paid to the Protestant Secondary Education Committee who make grants to needier Protestant children to enable them to attend school. A similar arrangement is applied in the case of the Jewish school. Such schools also receive funding, other than the per capita grant, towards support services such as secretarial and caretaking and miscellaneous grants. Fee charging schools not embraced by the Block grant do not qualify for payment of capitation supports.

School building projects, whether for fee-charging schools or schools in the free education scheme, are selected for inclusion in the Schools' Building and Modernisation Programme on the basis of priority of need using published criteria. Considerations of State support for minority religions has been an important factor in the provision of funding for such schools, given that much of the fee-paying sector has traditionally been made up of Protestant schools and those with a minority religious ethos.

The amount of capital funding given to fee-paying schools has been extremely small in recent years. For example, in the period 1999-2004, the total amount of capital funding given to fee-paying schools represented just 1.6% of total second level capital expenditure. Non fee charging schools are of course entitled to claim from the wide range of financial supports made available by my Department.