Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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59. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of primary schools which have been afforded less than €1,000 in their ancillary grant funding after the secretary budget had been removed; and the exact amounts each school were afforded, by county, in tabular form. [27447/24]

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 and 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 ancillary 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 on the basis of 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.

As the Deputy may be aware, following the acceptance by Fórsa of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) agreement in respect of salaries and various leave entitlements for grant-funded school secretaries, those secretaries who accepted the terms of this agreement were placed on a payroll operated by my Department from September 2023. Therefore, as schools will no longer be responsible for paying the salaries of these secretaries, it was necessary to revise the ancillary grant funding to take account of this change.

The arrangements for the 2023/24 school year are based on reducing grants by the value of the salary schools paid to grant-funded secretaries prior to their acceptance of the new terms and conditions. Schools provided my Department with these details and this information is now being used to reduce the ancillary related grant funding.

Correspondence issued to all schools on 20th December 2023 providing details of these arrangements for the period September to December 2023. Further correspondence issued on 26th April 2024 setting out the position for the period January to August 2024.

In the 2023/24 school year, schools have been paid the usual ancillary grant amount, minus the amount that schools previously paid to grant-funded secretaries prior to their acceptance of the new terms and conditions. Schools are in no way disadvantaged by this, as the grant is only reduced by the amount they previously paid to their secretaries.

Schools have been advised that work and engagement is ongoing to identify a method of standardising the reduction to the Ancillary and SSSF Grants for the longer term, where school secretaries are being paid via a payroll operated by the Department.

The table below includes the information requested by the Deputy. The information for the amounts paid less than €1,000 in their ancillary grant funding after the secretary salaries had been removed to all schools is not readily available by county at this time.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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60. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will commit to providing primary and secondary schools with a clear grant calendar, with payment dates provided, each year in order to allow schools to financially plan for the year. [27448/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Education is committed to providing schools at both primary and post-primary level with as much detail regarding grants, grant amounts and expected payment timeframes for each academic year as far in advance as is practicable.

For the 2024/25 academic year, officials in the Department are currently considering the presentation of schedules for grants that should include, as applicable across primary and post-primary, Standardised Testing, Capitation, Digital Strategy ICT, Deontas Breise Gaeilge, Free School Books, School Services Support Fund, Programme grants and DEIS grants.