Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 June 2013
288. Deputy Eoghan Murphy asked the Minister for Education and Skills if is considering a contingency plan for Protestant parents who may no longer be able to afford to send their children to Protestant fee paying schools (details supplied). [27504/13]
View answer290. Deputy Eoghan Murphy asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he decides to proceed with the budgetary cuts and discriminate against protestant pupils, the backup plan for families when they will no longer be able to send children to a Protestant ethos school as the only other non-fee paying protestant ethos school (details supplied) in County Dublin in the vicinity is full. [27510/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 288 and 290 together. This Government recognises the importance of ensuring that students from a Protestant or reformed church background can attend a school that reflects their denominational ethos while at the same time ensuring that funding arrangements are in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. With regard to the fee-charging Protestant schools, an arrangement exists whereby funding is provided by my Department to the Secondary Education Committee (SEC), an organisation run by the churches involved in managing the Protestant secondary schools. The SEC then disburses funds to the Protestant fee-charging schools on behalf of pupils who would otherwise have difficulty with the cost of fees and who, in the absence of such financial support, would be unable to attend a second level school of a reformed church or Protestant ethos. Funding amounts to €6.5 million annually. This fund ensures that necessitous Protestant children can attend a school of their choice. There are no changes proposed in respect of the Protestant block grant. The Deputy will be aware that in the context of the Budget 2013, I made a further one point change to the staffing allocation of fee charging schools from September 2013. Given the extremely difficult economic circumstances that this country is facing and the fact that every Department has to find considerable cost-savings, all expenditure must be examined to see if cost-savings can be found. The Deputy will appreciate that I cannot at this stage anticipate any specific decisions the Government may take in respect of the next budget.
