Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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671. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated first- and full-year saving of removing the monetary subsidy given to private schools. [38409/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Gross expenditure in the order of €121 million was incurred by my Department on salaries for teachers and special needs assistants (including employer’s PRSI) in fee-charging schools in the 2021/2022 school year, which is the latest full school year data available.

Capital supports (building-related and ICT grants) are also available to such schools and these totalled over €4.3 million in 2022. In addition, specific Covid-19 grant funding of €3 million was paid to these schools for the school year 2021/2022 for hand sanitizer, enhanced cleaning and supervision.

The figures given relate to the gross costs of fee-charging schools and not the net financial position.

In addition, given that the Pupil Teacher Ratio is 19:1 for free scheme schools and 23:1 in fee charging schools, the figures above do not take into account the additional cost associated with the greater number of teachers that would need to be employed if the pupils in fee charging schools were instead enrolled in schools in the free scheme.