Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 November 2023
449. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Education the status of the ancillary and IT grant for a school (details supplied); the reason the grant has not been issued; when the payment will be made; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47441/23]
View answerThe Department is committed to providing funding to recognised primary and post-primary schools in the free education scheme by way of per capita grants. The two main grants are the Capitation grant to cater for day to day running costs such as heating, lighting, cleaning, insurance, general up-keep etc. and the Ancillary grant to cater for the cost of employing ancillary services staff. Schools have the flexibility to use capitation funding provided for general running costs and ancillary funding provided for caretaking and secretarial services as a common grant from which the Board of Management can allocate according to its own priorities.
In addition to these grants, Minister Normal Foley TD has announced that €20 million in funding will be delivered during the mid-term break, to support all recognised primary and post-primary schools in the Free Education Scheme. This funding is the first tranche of an overall additional €60 million funding announced as part of Budget 2024 measures designed to assist schools with increased day-to-day running costs such as heating and electricity. A further €40 million in funding will be delivered in 2024.
Following the acceptance by Fórsa of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) agreement in respect of salaries and various leave entitlements for grant funded school secretaries, those secretaries that accepted the terms of this agreement have been placed on a payroll operated by this Department. Therefore, as schools will no longer be responsible for paying the salaries of these secretaries it is necessary to revise the ancillary grant funding. The priority to date has been to ensure secretaries could be set up on a Department payroll on the correct point on pay scale from September 2023. This represented a very significant body of work given the numbers involved.
Schools have received two thirds of the Ancillary Grant payable in 2023 and the Department is working to ensure the arrangements for the payment of remaining ancillary grant funding to schools are finalised so that funds due to schools can be paid as soon as possible.
The Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027 was published last year and is underpinned by an investment of €200m to support its implementation, committed to under Ireland’s National Development Plan (NDP). The first tranche of €50m issued to all recognised primary and post-primary schools in late 2021.
The previous Digital Strategy for Schools 2015 to 2020 saw overall investment of €210m issued to all recognised primary and post-primary schools in annual grant funding. This funding enabled schools to invest in appropriate digital infrastructure to enable the embedding of the use of digital technology in teaching, learning and assessment.
Funding of €50m secured as part of Ireland's National Recovery and Resilience Plan under the NextGenerationEU Recovery and Resilience Facility also issued to all recognised schools in the free education scheme to support learners at risk of educational disadvantage through the digital divide in late 2021.
My Department intends to issue the next tranche of ICT grant funding in the 2023 to 2024 school year. The specific timing for issue of the ICT grant is subject to the availability of Exchequer funding and the wider capital needs of the Department including the building programme to ensure the supply of school accommodation.
As part of the forthcoming Review of the National Development Plan, my Department’s aim is to provide better clarity and certainty for schools on the timelines for payment of minor works and ICT grant funding.
