Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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763. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she plans to withdraw public funding from fee paying schools. [18657/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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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 caretaking and secretarial services as a common grant from which the Board of Management can allocate according to its own priorities, except for the employment of relevant secretaries as per Circular 0036/2022.

The current standard rate of Capitation grant is €200 per pupil in primary schools and €345 per student in post-primary schools. Recognised fee-charging schools do not receive capitation or ancillary funding from my Department.

In relation to the free schoolbooks scheme, the scheme provides free schoolbooks and core classroom resources to all children and young people enrolled in primary, special and post-primary schools in the Free Education Scheme. Fee-charging post-primary schools are not part of the Free Education Scheme and are therefore outside the scope of the free schoolbooks scheme.

Recognised fee-charging schools receive a staffing allocation from my Department in line with Circular 0006/2025 which is available on my Department’s website regarding the staffing arrangements at post-primary level.

Currently recognised fee-charging schools operate on a pupil teacher ratio of 23:1 as opposed to 19:1 for all post primary schools in the free education scheme.

Teacher allocations for schools are approved annually by my Department in accordance with established rules based on recognised pupil enrolment.

The Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027 was published in 2022 and is underpinned by funding of €200m over the course of the strategy to support its implementation, which was committed to under Ireland’s National Development Plan (NDP). The funding allocation model provided for in the National Development Plan commits to funding to issue over the period of the NDP, applied by the Department for the Digital Strategy duration (to 2027 for the current strategy). As this is capital funding, grant issue in each year is subject to the availability of Exchequer funding and the wider capital needs of the Department including the building programme to ensure the supply of school accommodation.

To date, €310 million has issued to all recognised primary and post-primary schools in ICT grant funding, under the Digital Strategy for Schools 2015-2020 and the current Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027. This funding has enabled schools to invest in appropriate digital infrastructure to enable the embedding of the use of digital technology in teaching, learning and assessment. The most recent tranche of funding of €50 million issued to all recognised primary, special schools and post-primary and fee-charging schools in April 2024.

A standard funding formula incorporating both a flat rate lump sum and a per capita amount for each student enrolled is used to calculate the grant due to each school, so the specific allocation per school will depend on enrolment in all schools, the number of the schools, and the total amount of funding available under the scheme. All students following primary and post-primary programmes are included, for per capita purposes, in recognised primary, special and post-primary schools. Fee-charging post-primary schools receive funding at 50% rate.

As part of the review of the National Development Plan and through ongoing engagement between officials in the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, my Department aims to provide better clarity and certainty for schools on the timelines for payment of the ICT grant funding.

While not wishing to pre-empt the outcomes of any future Budget negotiations or fiscal parameters agreed by Government, the Department of Education will continue to seek and prioritise the funding required to meet the ongoing costs of running schools.