Eoghan Murphy
Question:93 Deputy Eoghan Murphy asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will confirm whether he has no intention of withdrawing public funding to fee paying secondary schools. [19586/12]
View answerThursday, 19 April 2012
Questions (95)
Written answers
The funding to which the Deputy refers is the arrangement whereby the salaries of teachers employed within the approved annual staffing allocation for fee charging schools by my Department are paid by the State, an arrangement that pre-dates the introduction of the Free Education scheme and which exists since the foundation of the State. The estimated cost of these posts is in the order of €100m.
The Deputy will be aware that I announced a review last December, in the context of the Budget 2012, where I made a further one point change to the staffing allocation of fee charging schools. I indicated at the time that the purpose of the review would be to inform future policy in relation to exchequer support for these schools. The review will be completed in the coming months and in time to inform Government deliberations on the next budget.