Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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155. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the capitation sum allocated to primary schools is inadequate to meet all their expenses; if this sum can be increased in line with that provided to post-primary schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40352/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I recognise the need to improve capitation funding for primary schools having regard to the reductions that were necessary over recent years.

It is difficult to make precise comparisons between the levels of grants paid and the actual costs of running schools at primary and post-primary levels.  However it is self-evident that the maintenance and running costs for second level schools are much greater on a unit cost basis than those in primary schools.

In general, post-primary schools are larger than primary schools and have a lower pupil teacher ratio resulting in more classrooms and specialist rooms such as laboratories, workshops and kitchens.  This leads to higher unit costs in second level schools for heat, light, power, maintenance and cleaning. 

The Action Plan for Education outlines hundreds of actions to be implemented over the 3 year period 2016 to 2019 which include restoring capitation funding as resources permit.

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. 

Capitation funding remains a priority for me to address during the lifetime of the Action Plan.