Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 51: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a school (details supplied) in Dublin 8 can be considered a special case in terms of the treatment of small schools in view of the particular purpose for which the school was set up, its historic association with the cathedral and the fact that it is a minority faith school; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6953/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I would like to assure the Deputy that the Government is fully conscious that maintaining a network of schools is important if students from minority denominations are to be enabled attend a school that reflects their denominational ethos, while at the same time ensuring that funding arrangements for those schools are in accordance with the Constitution. In order to inform future policy on the potential extent and nature of Exchequer investment, including funding for teacher posts, in the fee-charging sector in future years I have asked my officials to conduct a specific analysis on tuition fee income available to schools in the sector and its utilisation.

The specific analysis to be conducted by my Department will involve looking at the level of the tuition fee income based on fee rates and pupil numbers. It will take account of Exchequer investment foregone (in teacher allocations and recurrent grants) because the school is charging fees. In this way the additional or discretionary income available to fee charging schools relative to other schools can be assessed. It will then involve some dialogue with schools to confirm the information and each fee charging school will have the opportunity to identify if there are certain individual factors which may limit their freedom to use this discretionary income – e.g., mortgages entered into for capital developments or other verifiable liabilities. This process will apply to all fee charging schools.