Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 July 2016
200. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of chaplains employed in post-primary and third level education here; the cost to his Department of chaplaincies in training; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23788/16]
View answerIn relation to the third level sector, my Department allocates recurrent funding to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) for direct disbursement to the HEA designated higher education institutions. The HEA allocates this funding to the institutions and the internal disbursement of this funding, along with funding it receives from private sources, is then a matter for the individual institution. Most third level institutions provide chaplaincy services for their student body and decisions on such provision is a matter for the individual institutions as autonomous bodies.
The HEA recently carried out a survey on chaplaincy services in the higher education sector which showed that the majority of institutions offer some form of chaplaincy service and that there is significant variation in the approach to chaplaincy services in the sector. Approaches include the appointment of chaplains as full-time members of staff, agreements with a particular church, internal multi-faith functions and additional remit for existing lecturing staff. The survey showed that the cost of providing chaplaincy services across the higher education sector is estimated at €1.7m per annum.
At post primary level, my Department allocates chaplain posts to Community and Comprehensive Schools and designated Community Colleges. There are currently 154 whole time equivalent chaplain posts allocated to these schools. The annual cost is approximately €9.5m.
The appointment of Catholic or Protestant chaplains to these schools flow from the original agreements concluded when the schools concerned were established. The chaplains are not necessarily teachers of religion and perform pastoral and counselling roles. Under current arrangements they can teach a minimum number of hours and subject to their individual qualifications this may be for subjects other than religion.
