Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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196. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason parents are required to pay for swimming lessons, pool hire, and transport costs associated with swimming, despite swimming being part of the primary school physical education curriculum; if she will clarify whether schools receive any ring-fenced funding from her Department to deliver this part of the curriculum; and if she will outline her plans to ensure that all children have equal access to swimming without additional costs being placed on families. [54419/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department and its support services continue to work to support all schools and teachers to deliver the full breadth and balance of the curriculum. Physical Education is a core part of the curriculum at primary level which seeks to satisfy the physical needs of the child through a consistent and comprehensive experience of movement and play that challenges the child to realise his or her individual physical potential.

The redeveloped curriculum specification for Primary Wellbeing, including SPHE and PE, was recently published by my Department. The Wellbeing Curriculum aims to provide all children with a balanced, inclusive, age and developmentally appropriate understanding of human development and sexuality. This includes fostering healthy attitudes and relationships while recognising the diversity of human experience.

The Wellbeing Curriculum includes the subjects of PE and SPHE. Learning in the Wellbeing Curriculum is organised across four Strands:

• Movement Education
• Emotional and Relational Education
• Health Education
• Community and Belonging.

The Physical Education curricula at both primary and post-primary level have been developed on the understanding that facilities available to schools vary. Consequently, they offer a level of flexibility that allows each individual school to design a programme that can be delivered using the resources and supports available to it.

Where schools decide to provide pupils with swimming lessons in school time, they are expected to fund them from resources already available to them. Under the Rules for National Schools, while voluntary contributions may be sought, no school may charge a fee as a condition of admission to an activity provided within school hours.

Significant investment of €9 million was made available to primary and special schools at the end of 2024. This was to ensure that schools have essential resources and materials to deliver a curriculum that meets the needs of all learners. The first of the grants were specifically aimed at supporting the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education and Arts education.

There will be multi-annual funding to support all areas of the curriculum, with future allocations depending on budgetary considerations and emerging needs as we roll out the curriculum nationwide.

This investment demonstrates the Department’s ongoing commitment to enhancing primary education and supporting all primary and special schools in providing a robust, well-rounded age-appropriate curriculum.

Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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197. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 570 of 17 September 2025, if her attention has been drawn to the net shortfall in ancillary grant funding experienced by a school (details supplied); the actions she will take to address this shortfall; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54427/25]

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 Fórsa 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.

Since the 2023/24 school year, schools have been paid the usual ancillary 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 now 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.

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.

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.

For the specific school mentioned the ancillary grant has now been reduced to NIL as the salary the school was previously paying their secretary, prior to moving to the Department’s payroll, is now higher than the ancillary grant available to the school prior to reductions being applied due to a decrease in enrolments. The level of funding available to the school for ancillary staff, including their caretaker, has not changed as the school is no longer funding the salary of the secretary.

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 Circular 0017/2021.

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. Note the reductions may change when a permanent model for ancillary-related grant reductions has been finalised.

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.