Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

259. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of phasing out public subsidies to private schools. [3738/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Gross expenditure on the order of €131 million was incurred by my Department on salaries for teachers and special needs assistants (including employer’s PRSI) in fee-charging schools in the 2022/2023 school year. Capital supports (building-related and ICT grants) are also available to such schools totalling over €0.5 million in 2023. In addition, specific Covid-19 grant funding of €0.9 million was paid to these schools in the financial year 2023 for hand sanitiser and enhanced cleaning.

If the parents of children in the fee-charging sector chose to send their children to the schools in the free education system, the State would have to fund those school places. In this respect, the figures quoted relate to the gross cost of fee-charging schools and not the net financial position. Since it is not possible to predict these patterns of behaviour, it is not possible to calculate any full-year saving if the monetary subsidies from my Department to fee-charging schools were removed.