Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 May 2015
555. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide a breakdown by year, from 2016 to 2021, inclusive, of the estimated additional expenditure required to meet the requirements of demographic changes, on a no-policy-change basis; and if she will identify the component parts of that expenditure. [18697/15]
View answerMy Department is in the process of updating its estimate of the impact of demographics on expenditure on the Education and Skills Vote, to take account of latest available projections of pupil numbers over the years ahead. It is planned that this exercise will be completed shortly. However, earlier indicative figures of the cost of providing for demographics were set out in an analytical paper compiled by the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service and published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in the context of Budget 2013. The link to this paper is at the following address, http://igees.gov.ie/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Final-Budget-Expenditure-Report-Educational-Expenditure.pdf. The paper calculated the impact of demographics in terms of teacher numbers in schools and of the cost of capitation grant payments. It estimated additional costs in this regard of some €207 million arising between 2016 and 2021. In addition to these costs, there would also be impacts on other areas such as special needs expenditure, school transport and student grants. Demographic pressures will also create pressures on school accommodation and consequent pressure for capital investment. Much, however, will depend in this regard on the location and distribution of the additional pupil numbers.
