Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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174. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of equalising school funding between voluntary secondary schools and community and comprehensive secondary schools. [30942/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The funding arrangements in the Community & Comprehensive sector and the ETB sector are primarily based on budgets determined by the Department. The enrolment in the individual schools is the main driver of the level of these budgets.

The funding arrangements in the Voluntary Secondary School Sector are based on per capita grants provided by the Department. Some equalisation measures were introduced to rectify historical inconsistencies in the funding arrangements for this sector of post-primary schools. It is estimated that up to €21m has been provided in equalisation funding between 2001 and 2009.

The level of disparity in the funding arrangements between the three sectors would need to be revisited to determine what remains to be done on the equalisation agenda.