Written answers

Tuesday, 11 June 2013

Department of Education and Skills

Departmental Expenditure

Photo of Eoghan MurphyEoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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288. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if is considering a contingency plan for protestant parents who may no longer be able to afford to send their children to protestant fee paying schools. (details supplied). [27504/13]

Photo of Eoghan MurphyEoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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290. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he decides to proceed with the budgetary cuts and discriminate against protestant pupils, the backup plan for families when they will no longer be able to send children to a protestant ethos school as the only other non-fee paying protestant ethos school (details supplied) in County Dublin in the vicinity is full. [27510/13]

Photo of Ruairi QuinnRuairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 288 and 290 together.

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 provided by my Department to the Secondary Education Committee (SEC), an organisation run by the churches involved in managing the Protestant secondary schools.

The SEC then disburses funds to the Protestant fee-charging schools on behalf of pupils who would otherwise have difficulty with the cost of 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. This fund ensures that necessitous Protestant children can attend a school of their choice. There are no changes proposed in respect of the Protestant block grant.

The Deputy will be aware that in the context of the Budget 2013, I made a further one point change to the staffing allocation of fee charging schools from September 2013.

Given the extremely difficult economic circumstances that this country is facing and the fact that every Department has to find considerable cost-savings, all expenditure must be examined to see if cost-savings can be found.

The Deputy will appreciate that I cannot at this stage anticipate any specific decisions the Government may take in respect of the next budget.

Photo of James BannonJames Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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291. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount that is being spent on renting prefab units in counties Longford and Westmeath; the rental cost per prefab unit; the names of the companies that have the contracts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27520/13]

Photo of Ruairi QuinnRuairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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A list of the schools in counties Longford and Westmeath that have rented prefab units is attached for the Deputy's information. The rental companies providing the prefab accommodation are Accommodation & Building Systems Ltd, Addacabin, Allspace, Cabinpac, Extraspace, Instaspace, Maccom, Roadmaster Caravans Ltd and Ultrakabin.
Please note that one prefab unit may consist of one or more classrooms and/or ancillary accommodation.
Under the Prefab Replacement Initiative announced in March 2012 and the further initiative that I announced yesterday over 216 schools have either already been approved or are currently being contacted to replace their rented prefab accommodation with a permanent build. In excess of €57m has been allocated for these two initiatives of which €24.8m has been paid to date. These initiatives will result in savings of approx €7m per annum on the rental of prefabs in these schools in the coming years.
Information in relation to all schools included in the Prefab Replacement Initiatives is available on my Department's website

Prefab rental in Longford and Westmeath - June 2013

Roll noName of schoolCountyDescription of rentalFloor areaAnnual rent
20124G**St Marys NSLongfordPre-fab80m2€14,391.00
20124G**St Marys NSLongfordPre-fab80m2€14,391.00
20124G**St Marys NSLongfordPre-fab80m2€15,830.10
20124G**St Marys NSLongfordPre-fab202m2€34,480.83
20124G**St Marys NSLongfordPre-fab160m2€33,210.00
201280**St Matthews NSLongfordPre-fab80m2€11,832.40
201280**St Matthews NSLongfordPre-fab80m2€10,533.40
201280**St Matthews NSLongfordPre-fab80m2€10,533.40
201280**St Matthews NSLongfordPre-fab80m2€10,533.40
05916G*St. Annes NSWestmeathPre-fab108m2€18,708.26
17025K*The Downs NSWestmeathPre-fab80m2€16,871.36
17102C*Cluain BuinneWestmeathPre-fab76m2€12,611.96
17327D**Curraghmore NSWestmeathPre-fab80m2€10,809.24
17327D**Curraghmore NSWestmeathPre-fab80m2€10,809.24
17327D**Curraghmore NSWestmeathPre-fab80m2€17,930.67
17327D**Curraghmore NSWestmeathPre-fab80m2€13,694.46
17327D**Curraghmore NSWestmeathPre-fab80m2€13,694.47
17327D**Curraghmore NSWestmeathPre-fab80m2€16,377.73
18505GSt Clares NSWestmeathPre-fab54m2€18,435.15
18505GSt Clares NSWestmeathPre-fab45m2€0.00
18640M**St Josephs NSWestmeathPre-fab80m2€16,981.38
18640M**St Josephs NSWestmeathPre-fab80m2€13,095.81
18640M**St Josephs NSWestmeathPre-fab80m2€13,095.81
18640M**St Josephs NSWestmeathPre-fab80m2€11,320.92
19848S**St Etchens NSWestmeathPre-fab80m2€25,171.29
19848S**St Etchens NSWestmeathPre-fab56m2€14,646.84
20063M*Scoil an ChlochairWestmeathPre-fab80m2€13,239.63
20063M*Scoil an ChlochairWestmeathPre-fab80m2€13,239.63
20073PSt Marys NSWestmeathPre-fab44m2€7,355.40
20238VGS an ChoillinWestmeathPre-fab80m2€11,512.80
20238VGS an ChoillinWestmeathPre-fab80m2€14,966.64
20238VGS an ChoillinWestmeathPre-fab80m2€14,966.64
20238VGS an ChoillinWestmeathPre-fab240m2€42,596.63
20238VGS an ChoillinWestmeathPre-fab80m2€20,787.00

* Included in Prefab Replacement Programme

** Included in 5 Year Programme.

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