Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 July 2018
138. Deputy James Browne asked the Minister for Education and Skills if the need for increasing caretaking and cleaning resources at a school (details supplied) in County Wexford will be examined; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28760/18]
View answerThe school referred to by the Deputy is an Education and Training Board (ETB) school.
ETB schools are not funded directly by my Department but are funded via pay and non-pay budget allocations provided to each ETB.
Pay budgets are provided to ETBs in accordance with approved staffing complements. Non-pay current funding is provided as part of a block grant that covers ETB overheads and other activities apart from the second-level programme.
ETBs are afforded considerable flexibility in the use of these resources to meet the needs of individual schemes. As such, my Department does not earmark allocations for individual schools or for the various activities of ETBs.
Each ETB receives a maintenance staffing allocation from my Department on an ETB basis and the deployment of Caretaking and Cleaning support is a matter to be decided between the school and the ETB concerned.
The way in which the allocation is distributed among schools is a matter for each ETB in line with its priorities and perceptions of need.
