Peter Burke
Question:248. Deputy Peter Burke asked the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of equalising school funding between voluntary, community and comprehensive secondary schools. [29699/19]
View answerTuesday, 9 July 2019
Questions (248)
Written answers
The funding arrangements in the Community & Comprehensive sector and the ETB sector are primarily based on budgets determined by the Department. The enrolment in the individual schools is the main driver of the level of these budgets.
The funding arrangements in the Voluntary Secondary School Sector are based on per capita grants provided by the Department. Some equalisation measures were introduced to rectify historical inconsistencies in the funding arrangements for this sector of post-primary schools. It is estimated that up to €21m has been provided in equalisation funding between 2001 and 2009.
The level of disparity in the funding arrangements between the sectors would need to be revisited to determine what remains to be done on the equalisation agenda.