Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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Question 188: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount the Catholic Church contributes to the annual budget for Irish schools. [19857/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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At one time the churches, including the catholic church, were required to make a local contribution to the national schools under their patronage to meet the day to day running costs, essentially capitation. There was no requirement for a local contribution to capitation at second level.

The requirement to provide a local contribution was discontinued in 2001 in respect of capitation funding. Prior to 1999 a local contribution of 15% for primary schools and 10% for post-primary schools was sought for capital projects built on land not owned by the State. In 1999 the then Government announced a significant change in the way local contribution was levied, introduced a ceiling on the local contribution and reduced the percentage to be paid locally on school capital projects.

In recent years, a number of measures were taken to reduce further the local contribution burden, these were:

- No local contributions were sought for special education projects in mainstream schools, even where the land was not owned by the State.

- No local contributions were sought for projects delivered under the Small Schools Scheme or Permanent Accommodation Scheme, a single all inclusive grant was paid under these schemes.

- A rolling five year period was used to reduce local contributions for Summer Works Scheme projects.

In October 2010, the previous Government approved the discontinuation of the policy of seeking a local contribution for all new primary and post-primary projects commencing construction and the rental of temporary accommodation. Under an arrangement dating back to the introduction of the Free Education scheme in 1967, the Boards of Management of voluntary secondary schools are required to pay a portion of the salaries of teachers they employ. This is known as the Teachers' Salary Grant and amounts to €562 per teacher. This sum is deducted by my Department from the capitation grants due to voluntary secondary schools who do not charge fees. The Teachers' Salary Grant is repaid directly to my Department by voluntary secondary schools that charge fees, as they do not receive any capitation funding from my Department. This grant amounted to €4.98 million in 2010.