Vol. 574 No. 1
284 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Education and Science his plans to give grants to secondary schools for secretaries, caretakers, insurance costs, cleaning and minor repairs to bring them into line with community and comprehensive schools. [26209/03]
287 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Education and Science if extra funding will be allocated to voluntary secondary schools to address the financial crisis caused by the doubling of their insurance costs during the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26313/03]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 284 and 287 together.
The funding arrangements for voluntary secondary schools reflect the sectoral division of our second level system and is structured mainly on the basis of capitation grants. There have been significant improvements in the level of funding for voluntary secondary schools. The standard per capita grant now amounts to €266.49 as against the rate of €224.74 that applied in 1997. For disadvantaged schools the increase has brought the per capita grant to over €300.
In addition, secondary schools have benefited under the school services support initiative. The initial grant of €25 per pupil that was introduced for second level schools in September 2000 was increased to €89 per pupil from September 2002 and was further increased by €10 per pupil from January last to €99 per pupil. In the case of voluntary secondary schools the grant was increased by a further €28 to €117 in September 2002 bringing the support services grant in the case of such schools to €127 per pupil from January last. This increase is in addition to the range of equalisation grants of up to €15,554 per school –€44.44 per pupil; per annum that have also been approved for voluntary secondary schools.
