Gino Kenny
Question:383. Deputy Gino Kenny asked the Minister for Education the estimated full year cost of abolishing voluntary contributions in primary and post-primary schools and replacing them with a grant equivalent. [44942/21]
View answerTuesday, 21 September 2021
Questions (383)
Written answers
I understand the need for improved capitation funding and I am pleased that budget 2020 has been able to provide for a further 2.5% increase in standard capitation funding for primary and post-primary schools that applied from the start of the 2020/21 school year. This builds on the 5% increase in capitation announced in budget 2019.
The combined increases given in 2019 and 2020 mean that circa 40% restoration has been achieved.
All schools have received the benefit of the capitation increases awarded to date. It is my intention to seek funding for further capitation increases in future budgets.
There is no information available to my Department that may be used to assess the full year cost of funding schools in order to allow them to abolish the voluntary contribution. It should be noted that schools individually determine voluntary contributions and that it is not permissible for schools to require families to make such contributions.
However, in addition to the increases above the estimated cost of increasing the standard capitation for all schools by 1%, 5% and 10% is set out in the table below.
|
% increase |
€m |
|
1% |
2.21 |
|
5% |
10.15 |
|
10% |
20.03 |