Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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352. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the full-year cost of measures (details supplied). [36361/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The information requested by the Deputy in relation to full year cost of measures is set out below. However, in the Back to School Allowance is the responsibility of my colleague in the Department of Social Protection (DSP). My Department will arrange for that Department to contact the Deputy directly in relation to this matter.

Providing free primary and secondary school books to all pupils across all fully publicly funded schools

School book rental schemes have an important role to play in reducing the cost of school books for parents. Circa. 95% of primary schools and 65% of post-primary schools operate a book rental scheme.

My Department supports the operation of book rental schemes through the funding provided under its school books grant scheme. Under this scheme, my Department provides funding of €16 million annually to primary and post-primary schools in the free education scheme.

A survey from Barnardos indicates that it would require an additional investment of around €40 million per annum to provide all school children with free school books. This should not be taken to mean that this organisation does not see the value of school book rental schemes. It should be noted that the organisation's €40 million estimate is in addition to the Department's existing annual investment under the school books grant scheme.

* Abolishing all fees for third level students both capitation and tuition

Based on the number of students that qualified for free fees funding in the academic year 2014/15 (and were therefore liable to pay the Student Contribution), and taking into account overall expected increases in student numbers, it is estimated that the net cost to my Department of abolishing the Student Contribution for the 2017/18 academic year would be €207m. This figure takes into account the resulting reduction to my Department's Student Grant Scheme budget.

With regard to funding towards tuition fees at undergraduate level, my Department provided funding of €280m in the academic year 2015/16 under the free fees schemes.

Restoring the capitation grant to pre-2008 levels

The figure provided in the table above is based on the cost associated with restoring capitation rates for Primary and Post-Primary schools in the Free Education Scheme to 2010 levels which are higher than those that were in place in 2008.

The process is underway for restoring grant funding that is used by schools to fund the salaries of ancillary staff. The ancillary grant was increased by €6 in 2016 and €5 in 2017 in order to enable primary schools implement the arbitration salary increase for grant funded school secretaries and caretakers and to also implement the restoration of salary for cleaners arising from the unwinding of FEMPI legislation. A similar type approach in relation to improvements in grant funding was applied, as appropriate, at post-primary level.

Restoring student grants to pre-2008 levels.

It is not possible to definitively calculate the cost of the various adjustments that have been made to the student support system since 2008, particularly in light of the demographic changes that have taken place.

To put it in context, in 2008/09 there were 57,261 students who benefitted from grant support at a cost of €264m, whereas in 2015/16 there were 80,622 students in receipt of grant support at a cost of €388m.

It is estimated, however that it would cost in excess of €100m to reverse all of the adjustments that have been made to the student grant scheme since 2008.

** Abolishing student fees for all EU post graduate students.

The cost to the State associated with the abolition of postgraduate fees is dependent on varying factors associated with type study i.e. full-time or part-time, varying fees associated with different course types and higher fees for international students. However, based on the fact that the academic year 2015/16, there were 11,975 EU students registered on postgraduate courses, and using the average cost of an EU postgraduate course, the estimated cost to the State of abolishing fees for EU postgraduate students would be €83m. It should also be noted that under my Department's Student Grant Scheme, funding of €12m was provided for postgraduate tuition fees in 2015/16; taking this into account, the net additional cost to my Department would therefore be in the region of €71m.