Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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239. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of increasing the cap for capitation payments to schools to €550, €600 and €650, respectively; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39863/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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My Department attempted to contact your office to seek clarification regarding your question. If you can provide further information regarding the information you are seeking, my department will attempt to be of assistance.

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 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 that regard it is critical that any additional resources that are available in the education sector are utilised in such a way as to maximise teaching and learning outcomes.

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.

Improvements have been made for the restoration of 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. A similar type approach in relation to improvements in grant funding was applied, as appropriate, as post-primary level.