Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire
Question:409. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Education the estimated first year and full year saving of removing the monetary subsidy given to private schools. [27803/22]
View answerTuesday, 31 May 2022
Questions (409)
Written answers
Gross expenditure on the order of €121 million was incurred by my Department on salaries for teachers and special needs assistants (including employer’s PRSI) in fee-charging schools in the 2020/2021 school year. Capital supports (building-related and ICT grants) are also available to such schools totalling over €1.6 million in 2021. In addition, specific Covid-19 grant funding of €3 million was paid to these schools in the financial year 2021 for hand sanitiser, enhanced cleaning and supervision.
If the parents of children in the fee-charging sector chose to send their children to the non-fee-charging sector, the State would have to fund those school places. In this respect, the figures quoted relate to the gross cost of fee-charging schools and not the net financial position. Since it is not possible to predict these patterns of behavior, it is not possible to calculate any full-year saving if the monetary subsidies from my Department to fee-charging schools were removed.