Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 213: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding the campaign of Church of Ireland and other minority faiths (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34676/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I refer the Deputy to the decision of the previous Government to remove certain funding from Protestant fee-charging schools in the Budget of October 2008. The previous Government also decided at that time make changes to how fee-charging schools should be treated in relation to the number of publicly funded teaching posts they are allowed. Teachers in fee-charging schools are now allocated at a pupil teacher ratio of 20 to 1, which is a point higher than allocations in non fee-charging post-primary schools.

The funding was withdrawn with effect from 1 January 2009 due to real concerns about the constitutionality of making grants available to fee-charging schools of one ethos and not to those of another. The Constitution specifically states that the State shall not discriminate against one religion in favour of another.

There are 26 distinctively Protestant schools, of which 20 charge fees. Many of the schools have a boarding facility, reflecting the dispersed nature of the communities across the country. The six Protestant schools within the free education scheme receive the same funding as all other schools within the free education system.

This Government recognises the importance of ensuring that students from a Protestant or reformed church background can attend a school that reflects their denominational ethos while at the same time ensuring that funding arrangements are in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.

With regard to the fee-charging Protestant schools, an arrangement exists whereby funding is paid to the Secondary Education Committee, an organisation run by the churches involved in managing the schools. The Secondary Education Committee then disburses funds to the Protestant fee-charging schools on behalf of pupils who would otherwise have difficulty with the cost of boarding fees and who, in the absence of such financial support, would be unable to attend a second level school of a reformed church or Protestant ethos. Funding amounts to €6.5 million annually.

In addition to this funding, teachers employed within the approved annual staffing allocation granted by my Department in fee-charging schools are paid by the State; an arrangement that pre-dates the introduction of free education arrangements and which has existed since the foundation of the state. The estimated cost of these posts in 2011 is in the order of €100m. I am already on record as saying that this is not a simple matter as these arrangements, which are historic and of long standing, impact upon a substantial number of schools which cater for religious minorities.