Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 1 December 2004
233 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Education and Science if she will increase funding for voluntary secondary schools to bring their funding in line with vocational and community schools; if she will grant 100% funding for the employment of secretaries, caretakers and cleaners in view of the fact that huge efforts at fund-raising have to be made to meet the shortfall; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31833/04]
View answerFunding arrangements for voluntary secondary schools reflect the sectoral division of our second level system and are structuredmainly on the basis of capitation grants with additional grants for secretarial and caretaking services.
There have been significant improvements in the level of funding for voluntary secondary schools. The standard per capita grant now amounts to €274 as against the rate of €224.74 that applied in 1997. I wish to draw the attention of Deputies to my recent announcement, in the context of the 2005 Estimates, to the further increase in this grant to €286 per pupil, with effect from January next. This increase will bring the per capita grant in the case of disadvantaged schools to €324 per pupil.
In addition, under the school services support fund initiative, secondary schools have benefited from further significant increases in the support grant. This grant that was introduced in September 2000 has been increased from €25 per pupil to the current rate of €99 per pupil, and will be further increased to €103 from January next. Funding for voluntary secondary schools has been further enhanced by the introduction of a range of equalisation measures that are designed to reduce the historic anomalies in the funding arrangements for the different school types at second level. Under the terms of recent equalisation measures, the support grant has in the case of voluntary secondary schools been significantly enhanced to €131 per pupil, and from January next will be further increased by €10 per pupil, bringing the overall grant for such schools to €145 per pupil. These increases are in addition to the range of equalisation grants of up to €15,554 per school per annum that have also been approved for voluntary secondary schools.
For a secondary school with 500 pupils, this amounts to additional funding of up to €119,000 per annum and annual grants of €255,761 — €275,000 in the case of disadvantaged schools — towards general expenses and support services. Schools are afforded considerable flexibility in the use of 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 cost items, including those referred to by the Deputy.
I was particularly pleased to announce an aggregate increase of €26 per pupil from January next for voluntary secondary schools. Schools have welcomed this increase. These significant increases in the funding of secondary schools are a clear demonstration of my commitment to prioritise available resources to address the needs of schools.
