Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 146: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the amount private fee paying schools will be subsidised by the State in the 2007/2008 school year. [21481/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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There are currently 56 fee-charging second level schools in the country, of which 21 are Protestant, 2 Inter-denominational, one Jewish and the remainder Catholic. Fee-charging schools, with the exception of the Protestant and Jewish fee-charging schools for which special arrangements apply, do not receive capitation or related supports. Protestant fee-charging schools receive funding through a block grant. This grant has its origins in the desire of the State to enable students of the Protestant and Jewish persuasions to attend schools which reflect their denominational ethos, and it includes payments in respect of capitation.

In addition, Protestant and Jewish fee-charging schools are eligible for payment of such grants as the transition year support grant, the secretarial grant and caretaking grant. Figures for the allocation of these grants in the 2007/08 school year are not yet available. The Deputy should note that fee-charging schools not embraced by the Block Grant do not qualify for payment of capitation or related supports.

Teachers in fee-charging schools are paid by the State, irrespective of the school's religious ethos. The payment of teachers' salaries is part of a complex scheme of funding for fee-charging schools, which has traditionally sought to balance considerations of equity, pragmatism and State support for minority religions. This may well reflect a long standing pragmatism that the State would be required to provide teachers for the pupils in question were they located within the free education scheme. Salary figures for teachers in fee-charging schools for the 2007/08 school year are not yet available

Minority religion schools also receive capital funding for building projects and have done so under successive Governments on the same basis as other secondary schools while approximately 50% of capital costs for Catholic fee-charging schools building projects are met by the State. However, school building projects, whether for fee charging schools or schools in the free education sector, are selected for inclusion in the Schools' Building and Modernisation Programme on the basis of priority of need. In that regard the Deputy should note that the proportion of the school building programme spent in fee-charging schools in recent years has been extremely small.