Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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136. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on whether the recent drop in capitation payments for schools from €200 to €165 is justified; and the reason for the large gap between the capitation payment received at primary and secondary levels. [42896/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I do recognise the need to improve capitation funding for primary and post-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 aimed at making the Irish education and training service the best in Europe by 2026 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 as resources permit.