Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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548. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools, by county, that applied for the STEM grant; the number of applications received by the closing date and after the deadline; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [57243/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I can advise the Deputy that the number of applications received by the closing date of 5pm on the 30^thof November 2023 was 2727 and those applications that were received after the deadline totalled 126.

The breakdown by county of primary and post primary schools that applied for the grants are as follows.

Given the very high number of valid applications and the budget available for the scheme, a decision was made by the Department to run a lottery, where a random number generator was used to pick out schools based on their line on the spreadsheet. The application for each school was then assessed on a case by case basis with the applications read again by the evaluation team, to ensure they met the requirements as set out in the grant call. Any school deemed not to have met the requirements was removed. The procedure was then repeated until all the budget available was allocated.

As the initial funding available at the time of call for applications was €1.5m, the Department worked to secure as much additional funding as possible, bringing the total available to €4.7m. Unfortunately, on this occasion, this additional funding fellshort of the ask of over €25m. The Department is front loading the grant scheme in 2023/2024 school year and it is hoped that a further round of funding can be run this year. This means that eligible schools that were not successful this time may receive funding in the future.

It should be noted that the Department also supports STEM through other areas such as teacher professional development and the development of resources, as well as through supporting initiatives such as SciFest, ESB Science Blast, the Discover programme with Science Foundation Ireland and BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.

We acknowledge the time and work that was put in by schools into the applications. However, there was a limited budget allocated to this grant scheme.in relation to any future funding that becomes available, the schools will be contacted by the Department.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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549. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools that were approved for the STEM grant, by county; to provide details of all the successful applicants in a location (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [57244/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I can advise the Deputy that the breakdown by county of primary and post-primary schools that applied for the STEM grants are as follows.

The successful schools in Mayo were detailed in the press release of the 20^thDecember 2023.

www.gov.ie/en/press-release/806d0-minister-for-education-announces-trebling-of-budget-for-stem-grants-for-schools-to-47-million/.

The schools are as follows.

Given the very high number of valid applications and the budget available for the scheme, a decision was made by the Department to run a lottery, where a random number generator was used to pick out schools based on their line on the spreadsheet. The application for each school was then assessed on a case by case basis with the applications read again by the evaluation team, to ensure they met the requirements as set out in the grant call. Any school deemed not to have met the requirements was removed. The procedure was then repeated until all the budget available was allocated.

As the initial funding available at the time of call for applications was €1.5m, the Department worked to secure as much additional funding as possible, bringing the total available to €4.7m. Unfortunately, on this occasion, this additional funding fellshort of the ask of over €25m. The Department is front loading the grant scheme in 2023/2024 school year and it is hoped that a further round of funding can be run this year. This means that eligible schools that were not successful this time may receive funding in the future.

We acknowledge the time and work that was put in by schools into the applications, however there was a limited budget allocated to this grant scheme.

It should be noted that the Department also supports STEM through teacher professional development and the development of resources, as well as through supporting initiatives such as SciFest, ESB Science Blast, the Discover programme with Science Foundation Ireland and BT Young Scientists.

In relation to any future funding that becomes available, the schools will be contacted by the Department.