Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 February 2016
485. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Education and Skills the additional funding she has allocated to schools through the capitation and ancillary grant, given the recommendation of the arbitrator to increase the minimum pay of school secretaries and caretakers to €10.25 per hour from January 2016; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4357/16]
View answerI assume the Deputy is referring to primary schools.
The amount of grant paid to an individual primary school for capitation and ancillary services is determined by the school's enrolment, subject to a minimum grant for both capitation and ancillary services in respect of schools with enrolments up to 60, and a maximum ancillary services grant in the case of schools with enrolments of 500 or more.
In 2016 the ancillary grant is being increased by €6 from €147 to €153 per pupil.
Schools that in December 2015 pay an hourly rate of less than €10 per hour to School Secretaries and Caretakers from the Ancillary Services Grant and who will have insufficient funds in 2016 to pay the new minimum rate of €10.25 that comes into effect from 1 January 2016 can apply to my Department for some additional funding in order to enable them implement the new minimum rate. The detailed arrangements are set out in Department Circular 0076/2015 that was published in December 2015 on my Department's website.
