Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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338. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the full year cost of funding schools in order to allow them to abolish the voluntary contribution; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36588/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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My Department provide funding to support the day to day running costs of schools through capitation and ancillary funding.  

Restoring capitation funding as resources permit is one of the actions included in the Action Plan for Education and I remain committed to achieving this. However, I must be prudent in the context of ongoing budgetary pressures and prioritise where it is not possible to do everything that I would like to do in the education sector in any one year. In the last two budgets, I made provision for 6,000 extra teachers and 3,000 extra SNAs and over 3,000 new middle management posts.  These resources were allocated to improve the learning experience right across the sector, with a particular focus on children with special needs. 

The Deputy will be aware that 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. Through budget 2017 and Budget 2018, we are now investing €1 billion more in education.

Voluntary contributions to schools by parents are permissible provided it is made absolutely clear to them that there is no question of compulsion to pay and that, in making a contribution, they are doing so of their own volition and that a child's place in the school or continued enrolment is not dependant on a willingness to make a contribution. 

The manner in which voluntary contributions are sought and collected is a matter for school management, however their collection should be such as not to create a situation where either parents or pupils could reasonably infer that the contributions take on a compulsory character. As voluntary contributions are used by schools for many different purposes it is not my intention to seek to abolish them.

 The parent and charter bill will provide for parents to be provided better information including in relation to school accounts and the use of voluntary contributions.