Written Answers - Schools Insurance Costs.
Richard Bruton
Question:
325
Mr. R. Bruton
asked the
Minister for Education and Science
the assessment he has done of the cost of insurance for schools in Dublin; his estimate of the cost of insurance for a typical school of 750 pupils; and his estimate of the extent to which this has increased in the past three years.
[5307/03]
I am not aware of the costs of insurance in individual secondary schools as it is a matter for the managerial authorities of the individual schools to arrange insurance cover on school property and against public liability. However, I am aware of the concerns expressed by school authorities in relation to increased insurance costs. Grant aid to voluntary secondary school is provided by my Department by way of per capita grant and may be used towards insurance costs.
Significant improvements have been made in the level of funding to second level schools. The standard per capita grant from €224.74, £177, that applied in 1997, was increased to €266.49 in this school year. An additionalper capita grant of €38.09 is paid to disadvantaged schools bringing the total per capita grant in the case of such schools to over €300. In addition, under the school services support initiative, second level schools will benefit from further significant increases in the support grant from €25.40, £20, per pupil to €99 per pupil over this school year.
Funding for voluntary secondary schools has been further enhanced by the introduction of a range of equalisation measures that are designed to reduce historic anomalies in the funding arrangements for the different school types at second level.
Under the terms of a recent equalisation measure, the support services grant was further increased by €28 per pupil with effect from September 2002. This brought the support services grant in the case of secondary schools to €116.88 per pupil from September 2002 and to €127 per pupil from 1 January 2003. This increase is in addition to the range of equalisation grants of up to €15,554 per school, €4.44 per pupil, per annum that was approved for secondary schools in December 2001.
For a school with 500 pupils, this amounts to extra funding of up to €100,000 per annum, and annual grants of €236,761, €255,811 in the case of disadvantaged schools, towards general expenses and support services, including insurance costs.
