Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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465. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 90 of 11 October 2022, the reason that some schools in the Gaeltacht qualify for the Irish and bilingual grant and others do not; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51825/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department provides funding to voluntary secondary schools by way of per capita grants. Under current per capita funding arrangements an Irish and Bilingual Grant is paid each year to those voluntary secondary schools where all subjects are taught through Irish or those where a maximum of 4 subjects are taught through Irish.

My Department provides funding to Community and Comprehensive schools on a budget basis that is based mainly on pupil numbers, but also takes into account additional factors which vary from school to school such as age of buildings, size of school etc.

With regard to the ETB sector, financial allocations are made to ETBs as part of a block grant. ETBs are given a high level of autonomy in the management and appropriation of this grant and each is allowed to distribute its allocations in line with its own priorities and needs.

Work on the development of a new policy on Irish-medium education outside of the Gaeltacht is now underway in my Department. One of the key objectives of this new policy relates to the provision of a framework for the delivery of high-quality education in Irish-medium primary and post-primary settings and in Irish-medium early learning and care settings (naíonraí) outside of the Gaeltacht.

A public consultation process will take place in the coming months to gather the views of stakeholders, including young people, their parents, school staff and leaders, and Irish-language stakeholders. It is open to stakeholders to raise issues related to funding for Gaelscoileanna and Gaelcholáistí as part of this consultation process.