Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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242. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a full economic cost examination has been carried out for the day-to-day operation of primary and/or secondary schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [60762/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Government is committed to increasing funding to support schools and the Programme for Government commits to increasing capitation funding to schools of all types to ensure that schools can meet the elevated day-to-day running costs.

The commitment in the Programme for Government builds on the progress which has been made in recent years. My Department has secured €39 million in Budget 2026 towards increased capitation funding for primary, post-primary and special schools to provide additional financial support towards their running costs. This will see an increase in the standard capitation rates paid to schools of €50 per pupil for primary schools from €224 to €274 and of €20 per student for post-primary schools from €386 to €406. This will also allow for an increase of €20 in capitation rates for Urban Band One DEIS primary schools, increasing the mainstream pupil rate in these schools to €294. The increased capitation rates will also see special schools now receive the same rates of capitation, for young people aged 12 and over, as for their peers in mainstream post-primary schools. This funding will benefit schools around the country in managing their day-to-day running costs.

The increases announced in Budget 2026 are in addition to the 12% increases as part of Budget 2025. The last three Budgets have resulted in an increase in the level of capitation grant rates of 49.7% (€91) paid to primary schools and 28.5% (€90) paid to post-primary schools.

OGP frameworks are available to schools for a number of categories including facilities management, managed services, professional services, and utilities. Schools should ensure that they are availing of these available OGP procurement frameworks in order to get the best value for money for all school expenditure. The benefits arising from these frameworks include cash savings, administrative savings from reduced duplication of tendering, greater purchasing expertise, improved consistency, enhanced service levels and legal certainty.

The Financial Support Services Unit (FSSU), funded by my Department, is an important source of advice and support to schools on financial matters.

My Department is currently working on a project to facilitate aggregate analysis of school accounts’ data, which will deliver greater data-informed decision making to inform financial policy and improve targeted advisory support for schools. This project will entail analysis of schools’ costs and expenditure data in tandem with data sources from other areas of the Department to better determine key drivers of expenditure across schools.

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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243. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if funds will be released to a school (details supplied) to complete the construction of their carpark; to detail the process to be granted funding from her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [60791/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Since 2020, my department has invested over €6 billion in our schools throughout the country under the National Development Plan, involving the completion of over 1,300 school building projects. In addition, repurposing and optimisation of existing accommodation capacity across the school estate has been a key enabler of timely, local provision of special class capacity in a way that supports best practice in inclusion and integration. Circa 80% of new special classes in 2025/26 are being facilitated in repurposed classroom accommodation.

Government support for this investment, including by way of supplementary capital funding, has delivered real benefits for school communities. Supplementary capital funding of €210 million approved by Government has brought the total capital allocation for 2025 for my department to €1.6 billion.

In July the Government announced a capital allocation of €7.55 billion for the Department of Education and Youth for the period 2026-2030 under the National Development Plan. As part of this NDP allocation my department will place a strong emphasis on provision for children with special educational needs, with a particular focus on meeting annual school place needs. In relation to project rollout for Large-Scale projects and Additional School Accommodation scheme projects, the approach will be to continue to maximise the capacity of the existing school estate as much as possible in the first instance and provide necessary additional capacity through targeted and prioritised project rollout over the course of 2026 to 2030 period to meet the most urgent and prioritised needs. It is planned that circa 80 school building projects will progress to construction across 2026 and 2027 as part of a 2-year rolling programme.

All Government departments are expected to publish their sectoral NDP Implementation Plans in November. My department’s plan will optimise outputs from the NDP allocations, with a strong focus on maximising existing school capacity, progressing priority projects where local capacity across schools in the area is insufficient, and ensuring delivery that is affordable, offers value for money, and meets functional needs. The matter referred to by the Deputy will be reviewed in the context of this process and the school will be advised of the outcome.