I am aware of the demands by voluntary secondary schools for increased funding, including for the reasons referred to by the Deputy.
The funding of voluntary secondary schools is structured mainly on the basis of capitation grants with additional grants for secretarial and caretaking services.
The standard per capita grant for voluntary secondary schools has been significantly increased in recent years and now amounts to €266 as against the rate of €224 that applied in 1997. I wish to draw the attention of the Deputies to the recent announcement in the context of the 2004 Estimates to a further increase in the standard per capita grant with effect from 1 January 2004 to €274. This increase will bring the per capita grant in the case of disadvantaged schools to €312.
This announcement builds on my commitment towards enhanced "equalisation" funding measures for voluntary secondary schools. In addition to the per capita of €25 that was introduced under the school services support initiative for second level schools in September 2000 and now stands at €99 since January last, secondary schools have benefited from a further increase of €28 bringing the grant for such schools to €127 from January last. This per capita grant was in addition to a range of equalisation grants of up to some €15,500 per school per annum that were also approved for voluntary secondary schools. For a secondary school with 500 pupils, this amounts to additional “equalisation” funding of almost €30,000 per annum and overall additional support services funding of approximately €80,000 per annum.
A further measure of my continuing commitment in this regard is my recent announcement in the context of the 2004 Estimates that the support services grant of €127 per pupil is being further increased from 1 January 2004 in the case of voluntary secondary schools to €131, a per capita increase of €4.
A measure of the increase in overall funding for secondary schools is that by comparison with 1997, a secondary school with 500 pupils now receives extra annual funding of up to €105,000 per annum.
Schools are afforded considerable flexibility in the use of these resources to cater for the needs of their pupils. This is in my view, in general, a preferable approach to putting in place grants for specific initiatives, including those referred to by the Deputy.
I am committed to improving further the funding position of voluntary secondary schools in the light of available resources and to addressing the issue of equity raised by voluntary secondary schools. At a time of increased financial constraints, the recent announcement of further significant increases in the funding of voluntary secondary schools is a clear demonstration of my commitment to prioritise available resources to address the needs of schools.
