Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The position is that VECs are statutory bodies governed by extensive legislation, primarily the Vocational Education Act 1930 to 2001. Accordingly, all employees of VECs, including caretakers, are subject to terms and conditions of employment determined by the VEC concerned, with the consent of the Minster for Finance.

My Department provides funding towards the cost of caretaking services in the case of secondary schools under two separate schemes. One is the 1978/79 scheme for the employment of school caretakers in secondary schools under which my Department meets the full cost of salary. The 1978/79 scheme is being phased out as posts become vacant and no new posts are being created.

The 1978/79 scheme has been superseded by a more extensive school support grant scheme towards the funding of ancillary services in schools including caretaking services. The scheme is flexible in nature giving Boards of Management and schools discretion as to the manner in which these services are provided.

Under that scheme each school receives a grant from my Department for the provision of caretaking and other ancillary services. It is a matter for each school to determine how best to meet its caretaking requirements. My Department has no direct role in the pay or conditions of service of caretakers employed directly by schools under these arrangements. There are no proposals at present to change this position.

The funding arrangements made by my Department for second level schools reflect the sectoral division of our second level system. At the core of all arrangements is a reliance upon capitation as the principle determinant of funding. My Department provides funding to secondary schools by way of per capita grants, which affords schools considerable flexibility in the use of these resources to cater for the needs of their pupils.

There have been significant improvements in recent years in the level of funding for voluntary secondary schools. With effect from January 2007, the standard per capita grant was increased by €18 per pupil and now amounts to €316 per pupil. In addition, voluntary secondary schools have benefited by the increase of €30 per pupil in 2007 in the support services grant bringing that grant to €189 per pupil.

The cumulative increase of €48 per pupil in a voluntary secondary school brings the aggregate grant to over €500 per pupil. These grants are in addition to the per capita funding of up to €40,000 per school that is also provided by my Department to secondary schools towards secretarial and caretaking services. For example in the case of a secondary school with 500 pupils, this brings annual grants towards general expenses and support service to over €290,000. This represents an increase of 83% since 2000.

These significant increases in the funding of post primary schools are a clear demonstration of my commitment to prioritise available resources to address the needs of schools. My Department will be considering, in line with the Programme for Government commitment, how best to complete the process of equalisation of funding at second level.