Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

83. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the commitment in the programme for partnership Government to provide an annual increase in capitation to schools to help meet day-to-day running costs will be honoured. [22419/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Programme for a Partnership Government committed to investing an extra €500m in education by 2021 through various measures including annual increases in primary and secondary capitation rates. Through budget 2017 and Budget 2018, we are now investing €1 billion more in education.

Budget 2018 marked the second year of major reinvestment in the education sector, as we continue to implement the Action Plan for Education, which has the central aim to make the Irish Education and Training service the best in Europe within a decade. In 2018, the budget for the Department of Education increased by €554 million to over €10 billion.

I recognise the need to improve capitation funding for schools having regard to the reductions that were necessary over recent years. Restoring capitation funding as resources permit is one of the actions included in the Action Plan for Education.

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, €5 in 2017 and €5 in 2018, in order to enable primary schools to 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.