Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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141. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the grants planned to be paid to primary schools for the 2023-2024 school year; and the dates on which they will be issued. [30761/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department provides funding to recognised Primary schools in the Free Education Scheme by way of per capita grants. The two main grants are the Capitation grant to cater for day to day running costs such as heating, lighting, cleaning, insurance, general up-keep etc. and the Ancillary grant to cater for the cost of employing ancillary services staff. These grants may be regarded as a common grant from which the Board of Management can allocate according to its own priorities. In addition, schools also receive a range of other grants including Book Grants, Programme grants etc.

My Department engages on a regular basis with the education stakeholders including the primary management bodies on all matters relating to the running of schools.

Capitation grants payable in 2023-2024 will be determined by the per capita rate at the time and the recognised enrolments on 30 September 2023.

The School Grant Calendar for the 2023-2024 school year is in the process of being finalised. When it is completed it will be made available on my Department’s website at www.gov.ie

It is anticipated that payments will be in line with the schedule set out in the table below.

Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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142. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the steps she will take to ensure increased year-on-year funding for the school pathfinder retrofitting project; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30783/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The pathfinder programme is paving the way for, and informing the larger schools national programme for the energy retrofit of schools and will play a key part of meeting delivery of the Climate Action Plan.

The budget for the pathfinder programme of works from 2017 to 2023 is circa €110 million.

The next step in relation to the decarbonisation pathfinder programme as detailed in Climate Action Plan 2023 is to create an accurate scalable model for resourcing and delivery for the school sector. This will include an initial pilot to test the national delivery model processes and procedures, this will commence in 2024.

The level of NDP funding in the period 2024 onwards will be a key enabler for the rollout of a national programme for decarbonisation and retrofit.