Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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433. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the total funding given to fifty private schools in current and capital funding between 2020-2024, breaking allocations down by current, capital, year and school. [16551/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The current fifty fee-charging schools in the 2024/25 school year, generally do not get any State grants towards their running costs.

The allocation of teachers (in fee-charging schools) is outlined in Circular 0008/2024: Staffing Arrangements in Voluntary Secondary Schools for the 2024/2025 school. The allocation ratio applicable to fee-charging schools is currently 23.1, which means that the Department pays the salaries of one teacher for every 23 pupils in these schools compared with one teacher for every 19 pupils in schools in the Free Education Scheme. Gross expenditure incurred by my Department on salaries for teachers and special needs assistants (including employer’s PRSI) for all fee-charging schools is outlined in the table below as a total for each school year requested.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, specific Covid-19 grant funding was paid to these schools in the financial year 2020 to 2023 for hand sanitiser and enhanced cleaning. There was no such payment made in 2024.

Further to this, capital supports (building-related on a case by case basis and ICT grants) are also available to such schools.

Attached are the current (excluding payroll costs) and capital expenditure payments made to the 50 existing fee-charging schools for the years requested. This does not include the school level breakdown for the teacher & SNA payroll costs, as this level of detail is not readily available. However, the summary table above gives an overview of the funding allocated.