Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 6 April 2022
116. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Minister for Education further to the fact that the recent Covid-19 grants to schools and centres of further education will expire this term, the amount of these funds that have been returned unspent by each education and training board in tabular form; and the reason in this regard. [18612/22]
View answerThe financial package approved by Government to support schools recognises that COVID-19 poses significant challenges for schools and has made provision for additional funding which is being provided to schools to meet costs relating to COVID-19.
Schools have been provided with a range of COVID-19 capitation grants to cater for enhanced cleaning regimes and the purchase of necessary supplies of hand sanitiser and PPE for use in the school and classroom. Schools were also permitted to employ an Aide in 2020 to assist with the physical and logistical arrangements necessary for school re-opening including movement of furniture, setting up hand sanitising stations, signage, training, engaging with parents and staff etc.
Also, at Post-Primary level additional supervision supports were provided to manage and prevent congregation of large groups of students and ensure the careful movement in a socially distant manner to classes for specialist subjects where it was neither practical nor possible to remain in the classroom.More than €158 million of additional COVID-19 funding has been made available to primary and post primary schools for the school year 2020/21.
My Department has committed to ensuring that the full range of measures necessary to allow schools operate safely in the COVID-19 environment will continue to be available for the 2021/22 school year and has provided a further €109 million in COVID-19 capitation funding to date for Terms 1 and 2 of the 2021/22 school year. A further €50.9 million will issue to schools in the coming weeks to provide for Cleaning, PPE and hand hygiene and enhanced supervision measures. €24.5 million of this is for Primary schools and €26.4 million for Post-Primary schools bringing total COVID-19 capitation funding to €159 million for the 2021/22 school year.
My Department requested schools and ETBs to refund any COVID-19 grant funding not utilised from the 2020/2021 school year. The unspent monies related to grants received for cleaning supports, enhanced supervision, sanitiser, PPE and employing an aide in schools. The attached table is a breakdown per ETB as requested.
COVID-19 funding relating to further education centres is provided by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.
