Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)
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509. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if her Department plans to defund the education of any children whose parents object to their information going on the primary online database, POD; if so, the statutory basis for that action; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4471/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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From the 2016/2017 academic year, it is intended that teacher allocations and capitation grants will be made on the basis of POD data, and the previous basis for allocations, the National Annual School Census will cease operation from that point. There is no mechanism for separate payment and allocation to schools for pupils that are not on POD, and from a practical point of view it is difficult to see how much a system could work in practice.

Under Section 12 of the Education Act 1998, the Minister of Education shall determine and publish the criteria in each school year by which funding shall be provided to schools in the following academic year. Over 3 billion euro of taxpayers money is spent annually on funding our primary school system. The vast majority of this funding is allocated to schools on the basis of reported pupil numbers. It is more than prudent from an audit and financial accountability point of view that we validate the data underlying these payments and ensure that payment is made only once in relation to each pupil.