Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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437. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 92 of 12 June 2025, if she will outline how the ancillary grant is calculated for each school, the total funding provided for this scheme in 2024 and 2025; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34222/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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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 Circular 0040/2009 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 and Youth’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.

Since the 2023/24 school year, schools have been paid the usual ancillary-related grant amount, minus the amount that schools previously paid to grant-funded secretaries prior to their acceptance of the new terms and conditions. Schools provided the Department with these details and this information is being used to reduce the ancillary-related grant funding. Schools should be in no way disadvantaged by this, as the grant is reduced only by the amount they previously paid to their secretaries. The rate of gross 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

To date the Department has 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.

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 and Youth’s payroll, the ancillary grant is reduced to NIL. This should not impact the school’s financial position.

Work is ongoing to identify a method of standardising the reduction to the ancillary-related grants for the longer term where school secretaries are being paid on the Department’s payroll. The current reductions may vary when a permanent model for ancillary-related grant reductions has been finalised.

The current rate for the ancillary services grant is €173 as per assets.gov.ie/static/documents/538f7556-00172021-.pdf The reduced rate of €89.50 applies to schools that have a secretary or caretaker under the 1978/1979 scheme. The grant is calculated on the basis of the relevant rate by the enrolment as at the previous September. Primary schools with fewer than 60 pupils are paid the ancillary services grant on the basis of having 60 pupils, while the maximum grant paid is based on an enrolment figure of 500 pupils. Special schools are paid the ancillary services grant based on the number of authorised fulltime teaching staff up to a maximum of 16 teachers.

The total ancillary services grant funding paid to primary schools and special schools in 2024 was €57.6m.

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.

Holly Cairns (Cork South-West, Social Democrats)
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438. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 116 of 11 June 2025, to provide the requested email and phone lines available for Oireachtas members to raise queries in her Department and the bodies under its aegis, in tabular form. [34225/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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PQ 116 of 11 June 2025 sought an updated list of all email and phone lines for use of Oireachtas members within her Department, including all subsidiary bodies, in tabular form.

Details are presented in the table below.

Department Units