Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 1504: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the changes in various funding supports to a group of schools (details supplied) in 2009. [1276/09]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to reemphasise that there are no changes proposed in respect of the Protestant Block Grant. Protestant fee-charging schools receive — and will continue to receive — the Protestant Block grant, which in the current school year amounts to €6.25 million. This payment covers capitation, tuition and boarding grants. The grant is distributed by the Secondary Education Committee among disadvantaged Protestant children. Applications are made by parents to the Central Protestant Churches Authority, which, on the basis of a means test, distributes the funds to individual schools on the basis of pupil needs.

The retention of this grant demonstrates the importance that I, and this Government, continue to attach to ensuring that students of the Protestant faith can attend schools that reflect their denominational ethos. Furthermore in retaining this grant the Government is being faithful to the separate arrangements that were agreed with the Protestant schools when the free scheme was introduced by Donagh O'Malley and, at the time, it was the payment of a block grant in particular for Protestant fee-charging schools that distinguished them from the Catholic schools that also chose to continue to charge fees.

In addition to the block grant, Protestant fee-charging schools were paid a range of support services grants that the Catholic fee-charging schools did not receive. The purpose of these grants was not to offset fees for disadvantaged Protestant students. It is estimated that savings of €2.8 million will accrue as a result of the withdrawal of these grants from the Protestant fee-charging schools in 2009.

I have had take decisions in relation to a range of grants that have impacted on the funding of schools generally. With the Protestant Block Grant protected, I can see no justification for treating the Protestant fee-charging schools in a special way, particularly given that Catholic fee-charging schools have not been in receipt of the grants in question at all.

The Government also decided to make changes to how fee-charging schools should be treated in relation to the number of publicly funded teaching posts they would be allocated. In fee-charging schools, the pupil-teacher ratio is now set at 20:1. Fee-charging schools can continue to employ additional teachers that they fund from their fee income.

In relation to staffing resources either for teachers or support services, I do not see any reasonable basis for discriminating on grounds of religious denomination between fee-charging schools. There is a particular historic rationale for providing particular support to the Protestant schools through the Block grant, and as I have said, it is being maintained.