Written answers

Tuesday, 22 September 2015

Department of Education and Skills

Student Councils

Photo of Jonathan O'BrienJonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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1208. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools that have student councils; the number of schools that do not have student councils; the cost of running the student council support service; and the funding and staff allocated to it during each of the past three years. [30667/15]

Photo of Jan O'SullivanJan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Section 27 of the Education Act 1998 provides that students of a post primary school may establish a student council and that the schools Boards of Management should encourage, facilitate, and give all reasonable assistance to such ends. While my Department does not engage with student councils at a local level it does provide significant support for their representative body the Irish Second Level Students Union (ISSU).

The ISSU is the national organisation representing student councils.

My Department does not collect data on the number of student councils. However officials of my Department understand that almost all post-primary schools now have a student council.

In the 2013/14 school year my Department allocated a sum of €18,000 in funding to the ISSU. In the 2014/15 school year the funding allocated by my Department was increased to €40,000. In addition my Department also allocated €10,335 to the ISSU to fund a student led study on the Transition Year Programme.

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