Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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206. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated first- and full-year cost of increasing the capitation rates for primary and post primary school pupils, by an additional €10 per pupil in the 2025-2026 academic year compared with the baseline capitation rates allocated in the academic year 2024-2025 academic year, in tabular form. [28223/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The 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.

Primary schools with fewer 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 2025 the Department is pleased to have secured over €30 million as a permanent increase in capitation funding to assist schools now and longer term with increased day-to-day running costs. This represents an increase of circa 12% on current standard rates and enhanced rates. This increase is on top of the circa 9.2% increase from last year’s budget. This will bring the standard rate of capitation grant to the level of €224 per pupil in primary schools and €386 per student in post-primary schools from September 2025. Enhanced rates will also be paid in respect of pupils with special educational needs and Traveller pupils. Schools should also ensure that they are availing of the available OGP procurement frameworks and getting best value for money for all school expenditure.

In addition to these grants, €45 million in cost-of-living supports issued in November 2024 to support all recognised primary and post-primary schools in the Free Education Scheme. This additional funding announced in Budget 2025 is designed to assist schools with increased day-to-day running costs such as heating and electricity. This funding was paid at a rate of €36 per pupil in primary schools and €55 per student in post-primary schools. Enhanced rates were also paid in respect of pupils with special educational needs and Traveller pupils.

The Financial Support Services Unit (FSSU), funded by the Department, is an important source of advice and support to schools on financial matters, including budgeting and cashflow management. Contact details for FSSU can be found on www.fssu.ie.

The estimated cost of increasing capitation grant funding by €10 to all schools in the Free Education Scheme effective from September 2026 would be approximately €3.5 million first year cost and €10.4 million full year cost.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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207. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated first- and full-year cost of increasing rates for primary and post primary school pupils, respectively, by 10%, in the 2025-26 academic year compared with the baseline capitation rates allocated in the 2024-2025 academic year, in tabular form. [28224/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The 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.

Primary schools with fewer 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 2025 the Department is pleased to have secured over €30 million as a permanent increase in capitation funding to assist schools now and longer term with increased day-to-day running costs. This represents an increase of circa 12% on current standard rates and enhanced rates. This increase is on top of the circa 9.2% increase from last year’s budget. This will bring the standard rate of capitation grant to the level of €224 per pupil in primary schools and €386 per student in post-primary schools from September 2025. Enhanced rates will also be paid in respect of pupils with special educational needs and Traveller pupils. Schools should also ensure that they are availing of the available OGP procurement frameworks and getting best value for money for all school expenditure.

In addition to these grants, €45 million in cost-of-living supports issued in November 2024 to support all recognised primary and post-primary schools in the Free Education Scheme. This additional funding announced in Budget 2025 is designed to assist schools with increased day-to-day running costs such as heating and electricity. This funding was paid at a rate of €36 per pupil in primary schools and €55 per student in post-primary schools. Enhanced rates were also paid in respect of pupils with special educational needs and Traveller pupils.

The Financial Support Services Unit (FSSU), funded by the Department, is an important source of advice and support to schools on financial matters, including budgeting and cashflow management. Contact details for FSSU can be found on www.fssu.ie.

The estimated cost of increasing capitation grant funding by 10% to all schools in the Free Education Scheme effective from September 2026 would be approximately €9.6 million first year cost and €28.8 million full year cost.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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208. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of a 20% increase in the ancillary grant provided to every school for the year 2026. [28225/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The 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.

Primary schools with fewer 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 2025 the Department is pleased to have secured over €30 million as a permanent increase in capitation funding to assist schools now and longer term with increased day-to-day running costs. This represents an increase of circa 12% on current standard rates and enhanced rates. This increase is on top of the circa 9.2% increase from last year’s budget. This will bring the standard rate of capitation grant to the level of €224 per pupil in primary schools and €386 per student in post-primary schools from September 2025. Enhanced rates will also be paid in respect of pupils with special educational needs and Traveller pupils. Schools should also ensure that they are availing of the available OGP procurement frameworks and getting best value for money for all school expenditure.

In addition to these grants, €45 million in cost-of-living supports issued in November 2024 to support all recognised primary and post-primary schools in the Free Education Scheme. This additional funding announced in Budget 2025 is designed to assist schools with increased day-to-day running costs such as heating and electricity. This funding was paid at a rate of €36 per pupil in primary schools and €55 per student in post-primary schools. Enhanced rates were also paid in respect of pupils with special educational needs and Traveller pupils.

The Ancillary Services Grant is payable to recognised primary schools and special schools in the Free Education Scheme. The grant is intended to cater for the cost of employing Secretarial and Caretaking staff. It is up to the BOM to allocate this funding as per their priorities. As per www.gov.ie/en/department-of-education/circulars/clarification-regarding-legitimate-use-of-capitation-funding-2/ the capitation grant provided for general running costs and the ancillary services grant provided for Secretarial and Caretaking services may be regarded as a common grant from which the Board of Management can allocate according to its own priorities.

After Forsa accepted the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) agreement about salaries and leave for grant-funded school secretaries, the secretaries who accepted the agreement were added to the Department of Education’s payroll from September 2023. Because of this, the ancillary-related grant funding has been updated, since schools are no longer paying these salaries directly.

From January to August 2025, grant funding will be reduced based on the salaries schools paid to grant-funded secretaries before they agreed to the new terms and conditions. Schools have given the Department the salary information, and this is now being used to reduce the ancillary-related grant funding.

To date we have issued correspondence to schools with details of the arrangements for: September to December 2023, January to August 2024, September to December 2024 and January to August 2025.

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

In some situations, the salaries of ancillary staff in a particular school may have been higher than the ancillary grant due to the school, and the school may have funded this difference via other revenue streams.

In situations where the salary that a school was paying their secretary was higher than the ancillary grant due to the school, prior to them being added to the Department of Education’s payroll, then the ancillary grant is reduced to NIL. This should not impact the school’s financial position.

The rate of ancillary services grant has not decreased and continues to be paid based on the relevant enrolments in the school multiplied by the rates set out in www.gov.ie/en/department-of-education/services/ancillary-services-grant/#circulars

The Financial Support Services Unit (FSSU), funded by the Department, is an important source of advice and support to schools on financial matters, including budgeting and cashflow management. Contact details for FSSU can be found on www.fssu.ie.

The estimated cost of increasing ancillary grant funding by 20% to all schools in the Free Education Scheme effective from September 2026 would be approximately €6.5 million first year cost and €19.6 million full year cost.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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209. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of increasing the minor works grant ceiling by 1%, 5% and 10% respectively, in tabular form. [28226/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My department recognises the importance of the Minor Works Grant to primary schools. The Minor Works Grant is provided to all primary and special schools, to enable them undertake small-scale minor maintenance and improvement works on a devolved basis.  

Under Project Ireland 2040, a commitment was given that the Minor Works Grant would be paid in either December or January of the school year to all primary schools, including special schools. In recent years, my department’s approach has been to pay the Minor Works Grant to schools in advance of the start of the following school year, in order to facilitate a better lead in period for schools to plan any maintenance or minor works during the summer period.  

Primary and special schools need not apply for Minor Works Grant aid. Under the scheme, funding is made available to all primary and special schools on the following basis: 

€5,500 basic grant plus €18.50 per mainstream pupil and €74 per special needs pupil enrolled in the school on the 30th of September of the year prior to the issue of the grant. The €74 rate applies to a special needs pupil attending a special school or attending a special class attached to a mainstream school. . 

Schools have the autonomy to use this funding for maintenance and small-scale improvements to school buildings and grounds. Given that each school setting is different, individual schools are best placed, to decide how best to use this funding to address their particular needs.  

The current annual Minor Works Grant expenditure across all primary schools amounts to over €29m.

If the current ceiling rate were to increase by the above percentages, the increase in costs would be as follows -  

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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210. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of increasing the capacity of school transport by 100,000 seats by 2030, in tabular form. [28227/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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It is estimated that an additional 100,000 children, above the current pupil numbers on transport, could be accommodated on the mainstream scheme by 2030, at which point due to demographics numbers will decline somewhat thereafter but with an expected increase of 80,000 pupils on current school year numbers by 2040. 

To achieve our ambition to expand and improve the scheme, i.e. that it carries 100,000 additional students, will require increasing costs over time to €672m in 2030. 

If we do not implement the recommendations of the scheme, financial and economic modelling shows that the costs of the scheme will rise to €678 in 2030 in any case.

This is because the comprehensive set of recommendations if implemented will leverage four major factors:

• Creating opportunities for SEN children to travel on mainstream transport with the appropriate supports, should they so wish.
• Creating greater access to local provision for children with SEN so that they have to travel less distance to access appropriate educational provision for their needs.
• Decreasing demographics which will see spare capacity increase over time on the buses.
• Greater integration with public transport where appropriate. 

Building on data from the Department and Bus Éireann including profiles of the geographic distribution of School Transport Scheme users and projections for future trends in student numbers, as well as analysis of the likely impacts of different pricing policies, the projections in the attached table have been prepared.

In the Phase 3 report Indecon developed projections for the Review of the School Transport Scheme. All options project the total usage of mainstream service to peak in the short terms before slowly declining over the appraisal period. Please see attached table with regard to the projected demands for mainstream services. 

At the time, the total costs to place a mainstream pupil on transport was approximately €1,100 per pupil with an annual increase of approx. 2.5% - 5% . Funding for future implementation of scheme amendments will be sought in the context of the annual budgetary process. All costs factored into the review costs were current costs.

With regard to the factors and outputs associated with the total review costs, a comprehensive cost benefit analysis was conducted as part of the final phase of the review.  As part of this cost benefit analysis a number of options for the future operation of the scheme were considered and each option was fully costed.  The cost to operate the scheme under the recommended option is set out in the published final report – School Transport 2030. There are certain assumptions and projections used in compiling these costs, as follows:

1. that the current years’ costs at that time were the base costs
2. costs will continue to grow at the current rate out to 2031
3. savings to be made on the SEN scheme are anticipated as a result of inclusivity on mainstream services, it was assumed in year 1 an uptake rate of 5%, increasing over the next four years to a 20% uptake rate in 4th year of implementation
4. it was assumed that costs associated with the reduction in parental fees and with additional services to cater for the increased demand brought about by the cost-of-living incentives, will be replaced by the review costs
5. Ukrainian costs will continue as required

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Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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211. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated first- and full-year cost of increasing the number of special needs assistants by 500, 1,000 and 1,500 respectively, in tabular form. [28228/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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The estimated full-year cost of a new entrant special needs assistant is €35,030 per annum. The estimated average full-year cost of a special need assistant is €44,300 per annum. This includes employer PRSI.

The table below outlines the annual cost as outlined by the Deputy.