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European Schools.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 May 2004

Tuesday, 18 May 2004

Questions (204)

Jan O'Sullivan

Question:

218 Ms O’Sullivan asked the Minister for Education and Science if he has approved the spending of €16.45 million from the EU budget on a school in Uccle, Brussels; if Ireland contributes a further €8 million per year to the school for teachers’ salaries; his views on whether such expenditure is appropriate in view of the much lower amounts spent on individual schools here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14592/04]

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Written answers

The school in Uccle, Brussels, is one of 12 European schools established by intergovernmental agreement to provide an education at first and second levels for the children of parents working in the European Commission or other European institutions. Ireland is a party to the convention governing the schools and, as such, has one representative on the board of governors of the schools, along with all the other parties, including 15 member states of the EU, the European Patent Office and the Commission, 17 in all; the ten new EU member states are expected to adhere to the convention shortly. All decisions relating to the running of the schools have to be sanctioned by the board.

Each school provides education in a full range of subjects for pupils from kindergarten to the end of secondary school. Pupils are organised in different language sections and subjects such as maths and science are taught in a range of European languages. The schools also provide mother tongue teaching in all the languages of EU pupils in the schools.

The schools are preparing to admit the children of parents from the ten accession states and, in addition to providing an extended range of language sections, mother tongue teaching will also have to be provided in the languages of the accession countries.

As part of its obligations under the convention and in common with the other member states of the EU, my Department seconds a number of Irish teachers to work in the schools. The European Commission, as the employer of the parents of the pupils, provides direct financing for each school to cover the other costs of the schools, as the education of such children is free.

The school in Uccle has currently 2,334 pupils, of whom 92 are the children of parents of Irish nationality working for the Commission or its institutions. From 2004-05 it will offer education in the core subjects throughout primary and secondary in the following language sections: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish and Hungarian. It will offer mother tongue teaching in those languages as well as Irish, Slovenian and Maltese and possibly Czech and Slovak. In addition, it offers religious instruction in all the principal faiths of its pupils.

On the funding of the school at Uccle, the budget for 2004 is €26,021,831; the Commission contribution is €18,123,334; the Irish contribution by way of seconded teachers, two at primary and eight at second level, is €358,673, not €8 million as mentioned by the Deputy. Given both the size of the school and the extraordinary complexity of the task facing it in providing for such a variety of languages and cultures and also given its location in Brussels, it is not appropriate to compare the annual costs of the school with those of schools in this country.

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