Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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185. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of taking over the patronage of the primary school system, based on the cost per pupil of running the model schools. [15383/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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My Department does not directly fund school patrons. Changing the patronage of primary schools should not therefore impact on the day to day running costs of schools or their method of funding.

Primary schools are funded on a capitation based system. There is a standard capitation rate for all primary schools of €170 per pupil subject to a minimum payment of €10,200 for small schools of less than 60 pupils.

There are 9 model schools that vary in size. The cost of running the 9 model schools are dealt with on the basis of vouched expenditure under a budget based system. These costs can vary from school to school and from year to year depending on the needs of the school at that time. It would therefore be difficult to make an accurate comparison between the vouched expenditure and budget based system in the 9 model schools and the capitation based system in operation for all other primary schools.