Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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182. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of doubling the transition year grant. [38623/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Transition Year holds an important place in the programme for Senior Cycle Redevelopment and is highly regarded as a valuable year for students that offers opportunities for life skills, personal, social and academic development, and experience of adult and working life.

All schools design their own Transition Year programmes within set guidelines to suit the needs and interests of their students. This allows schools to work with local resources, employers, and Further Education providers, for example, to create tailored experiences for students. As such, a range of factors affect the cost of the programme, and these factors will vary from school to school in line with the design of the programme.

Recently, I have approved a new Transition Year Programme Statement which provides a framework for schools to develop their own Transition Year programmes, ensuring the best possible Transition Year learning experience for students. Schools will audit their Transition Year programmes this year ahead of the introduction of the Programme Statement in the 2025/2026 school year.

Currently, the Transition Year Grant which is paid to non-fee charging voluntary secondary schools, community and comprehensive schools and schools in the ETB sector in addition to capitation payments. The Transition Year Grant is paid on a per capita basis – therefore it increases or decreases in line with the number of actual participants in a given year when compared with other years.

Since its introduction, the popularity and uptake of Transition Year has increased significantly to the point where it is now offered in almost every post-primary school. The number of students entering Transition Year has been continued to rise in recent years, with the latest figures showing that over 58,000 students entered Transition Year in school year 2023/24, representing just over 80% of the number of third year students in the previous school year.

As a result of this increase in participation in Transition Year, the amount of TY grant funding provided by my Department has risen from approximately €3.1 million in 2014 to €5.1 million in 2024.

Transition Year is also supported through the payment of teachers’ salaries and the provision of capital funding to schools.

The rate for the Transition Year Grant in the 2023/2024 school year was €95 per student. 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 supports a permanent restoration of funding for post-primary schools from September 2024. This brings the rate of the Transition Year Grant to the pre-2011 level of €100 per student in post-primary schools.

Therefore, the estimated cost of doubling the Transition Year Grant rate would be an additional €5.4 million approximately.

I am committed, as part of Senior Cycle Redevelopment, to ensuring that in the future, every student in every school who wishes to participate in the programme will have the opportunity to do so.?I and my officials will continue to examine the additional resources that will need to be made available to schools in order to facilitate this.