Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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287.To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide a schedule of all upcoming grants for national schools; and if this schedule has been provided to schools. [24897/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department provides information to schools about upcoming grants. Officials are working on developing a replacement for the old schedule of grants/grants calendar, which was out-dated and, - consequently, - removed.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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288.To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if there are multi-annual financial plans open to national schools; and if not, if she will consider implementing such a measure in order to allow schools to plan ahead financially [24898/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department is committed to providing funding to recognised primary and post-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 and the Ancillary grant to cater for the cost of employing ancillary services staff. Schools have the flexibility to use capitation funding provided for general running costs and ancillary funding provided for caretaking and secretarial services as a common grant from which the Board of Management can allocate according to its own priorities, except for cases where a secretary is now paid from my Department’s payroll as per circular 36/2022.

The current standard rate of Capitation grant is €183 per pupil at Primary level and this year's grant is being paid, as usual, in 2 instalments, - the first in January and the second in June, for the 2023/24 academic year. Enhanced rates of capitation are also paid in respect of pupils with Special Educational Needs and Traveller pupils.

Primary schools with less than 60 pupils are paid the Capitation and the Ancillary grants based on having 60 pupils.

As part of the capitation package in Budget 2024 I am pleased to have secured €21 million as a permanent increase in capitation funding to assist schools now and longer term with increased day-to-day running costs. This will support a permanent restoration of funding for all primary and post-primary schools from September 2024. This will bring the basic rate of capitation grant to the pre-2011 level of €200 per student in primary schools. Enhanced rates will also be paid in respect of pupils with Special Educational Needs. This represents an increase of circa 9.2% of current standard and enhanced capitation rates.

In addition to these grants, €20 million in funding was issued in October 2023, to support all recognised primary and post-primary schools in the free education scheme. This funding is the first tranche of an overall additional €60 million funding announced as part of Budget 2024 measures designed to assist schools with increased day-to-day running costs such as heating and electricity. A further €40 million in funding was delivered in early 2024.

To assist with the preparation of the school budget for next year, the FSSU held a webinar: Financial Update & Preparing the School Budget for 2024/2025 for Primary Schools on Wednesday 24th of April 2024. This webinar was open to Principals, treasurers and any other school personnel involved in the budget preparation process. The FSSU also gave a brief financial update for primary schools.

To support boards of management, and particularly those new to boards since December 2023, the FSSU hosted a training webinar covering the financial duties of boards.

The Financial Support Services Unit (FSSU), funded by my Department, is an important source of advice and support to schools on financial matters, including budgeting and cashflow management. If the services of the FSSU would be of assistance, schools can email sdfinfo@education.gov.ie and officials from my Department will contact the FSSU on behalf of the school. Alternatively, budgeting templates and more information can be found on www.fssu.ie .

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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289.To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the details of all upcoming grants for schools (details supplied); and the details of previous grants awarded in each school year since 2020. [24899/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department provides funding to recognised primary and post-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 and general up-keep, and the Ancillary grant to cater for the cost of employing ancillary services staff.

Enhanced capitation is paid for Traveller pupils and for pupils with Special Educational Needs.

Schools also receive a range of other grants, including Digital/ICT grants, DEIS grants and administration support for the Free School Books Scheme.

Scheduled grants yet to issue for 2023/24 include primary school Capitation, 2^ndMoiety. These will issue to all recognised primary schools in June. The total grant amounts issued to the schools detailed from the 2020 academic year to 2024 (YTD) was €6.875m. Cost of living and energy grants also issued during this period, as well as Covid-19 grants, for example for cleaning supports, hand sanitiser and PPE, and for employing an aide.

Details of the annual expenditure by my Department.