Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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115. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware of the practice within some institutes of technology of appointing chaplains, and using public funds to do so without advertising, tendering or following public procurement or public appointment guidelines; the public funding that was used to pay for chaplain roles in 2012-13 and in 2013-14; and her plans to rectify this. [25734/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I understand that most third level institutions provide chaplaincy services for their student body and such provision is a matter for individual Institutes of Technology (IoTs). My Department allocates recurrent funding to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) for direct disbursement to the HEA designated higher education institutions including the IoTs. The HEA allocates this funding to the institutions and the internal disbursement of funding is then a matter for the individual institution.

The recruitment of staff is a matter for individual IoTs and should be in line with public sector appointment criteria and the provisions of the Employment Control Framework for the sector.

My Department does not hold details on the amount of funding allocated internally by IoTs for chaplaincy services; however, I have requested my officials to seek to have this information collated and forwarded directly to the Deputy.