Sorca Clarke
Question:70. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Education in relation to school funding, when the minor works scheme payment will be made to schools for the current school year. [52534/23]
View answerThursday, 30 November 2023
Questions (70)
Oral answers (7 contributions)
My question relates to school funding and when the minor works scheme payment will be made to schools for the current year.
The Department recognises the importance of the minor works grant to primary schools. This funding provides good flexibility at local level to assist schools to manage and undertake works that support the daily operation of the school. Under Project Ireland 2040, a commitment was given that the minor works grant would be paid in either December or January of the school year to all primary schools, including special schools.
In recent years, however, the Department’s approach has been to pay the minor works grant to primary schools in advance of the start of the following school year in order to facilitate a better lead-in period for schools over the summer period. A minor works grant of €30 million was paid in April 2023 to primary schools for the current school year. Schools have the autonomy to use this funding for maintenance and small-scale improvements to school buildings and grounds. Given that each school setting is different, individual schools are best placed to decide how best to use this funding to address their particular needs.
The works that can be undertaken under the minor works scheme include maintenance and small-scale improvements to school buildings and grounds, improvement or replacement of mechanical and electrical services, the purchase of standard furniture and physical education equipment, the purchase of floor coverings and window blinds, the purchase of IT-related equipment, ventilation improvements and enhancements to outdoor learning environments.
Between 2018 and 2023, in the region of €310 million in minor works and enhanced minor works grants has been allocated to schools. In 2023, summer and emergency works grants to the tune of €80 million have been provided. This includes the additional support in the context of Covid-19 of the payment of an enhanced minor works grant totalling €45 million for primary and special schools, plus a once-off Covid-19 minor works funding of €17 million for post-primary schools. The enhanced minor works grant allowed schools that identified inadequate ventilation in a room to utilise their minor works grant or apply for emergency works grant assistance to address ventilation enhancements where the minor works grant did not cover the full cost of the works required. Currently, the minor works grant payable is a €5,500 basic grant plus €18.50 per mainstream pupil and €74 per special needs pupil.
I understand the change in the payment date happened in the 2019-20 school year, when the country was in the grip of a pandemic. Without a shadow of a doubt, the minor works grant is second only to teacher shortages in terms of the education queries that come across my desk. The issue causes significant challenges for schools, in particular the payment date. The Minister has said it is paid in April. However, schools have told me that trying to get a tradesperson to carry out work in April is a real challenge because they may have to be booked three or four months in advance. Will the Minister bring the date back towards the end of the year for the upcoming year in order to give schools more opportunity to find a tradesperson?
At the Estimates meeting yesterday, I asked the Minister about the FSSU calendar to next June, which does not have any minor works grants listed on it.
The Minister said it will be provided next year. Are we to take it that the FSSU calendar this year will change as it did in previous years? How will she give confidence to schools, which are trying to budget through a difficult time, that what is on that calendar will be paid when it is due?
I fully understand the importance of the minor works grant. Considerable enhanced payments were made during Covid because we recognised the significance of the minor works grant. Minor works grants for 2023-24 were paid in advance of the school year, in April of this year, to ensure schools would have the lead-in time the Deputy speaks of and in order that works could be done at a quiet time, perhaps over the summer or whatever the case might be. In any event, the payments were given in April of this year.
The funding for 2024-25 will be made available, as I said previously, in due course. The minor works grant is just one element of a record level of capital investment in school infrastructure. Since 2020, we have invested in the region of €3.5 billion to add capacity and develop and upgrade school facilities throughout the country for the almost 1 million students and more than 100,000 staff who learn and work in our schools every day.
Despite that, we continue to have one of the lowest levels of investment in education in the OECD.
I raised correspondence yesterday at a debate on the Estimates, and while I had not intended to raise it again today, it needs to be addressed. I am not going to mention the school because I do not think that would be fair on it, but I am going to read out part of the email. I ask the Minister to revert to the House with an update on how many schools are in this position. It states that in the current climate with the cost of living, schools such as the one in question are finding it harder and harder to find the money for basics such as light, heat and water. Capitation, it continues, simply does not cover the basic expenses it should, while the cleaning grant it received does not cover the hours required for a cleaner to adequately clean the school. The email states that the school can afford only four hours per day, which is insufficient to maintain a large building and the surrounding grounds. It feels as though it is being punished for not overspending on goods and services and that, at this stage, it would be a gesture of goodwill to retain that funding.
What the school is referring to is the unspent money from the Covid grants. How many schools are in this position? This school is being asked to repay €6,000. I acknowledge it is unspent funding, but will the Minister ascertain how many schools are in this position and work with them to see whether there is a way in which that goodwill gesture the principal asks for can be accommodated?
I do not underestimate the challenges schools face every day but I recognise also that ours is the third highest spending Department in government, which is indicative of the huge priority placed on education by the Government, at more than €10 billion. I acknowledge that last year, additional funding of €90 million was made available to schools from an energy point of view, while €81 million is being made available this year, of which €21 million will go into the core from a capitation point of view in budget 2024.
On the specific question of the moneys that were paid and spent during Covid, not one school is being asked to repay one penny it spent during Covid. This was additional money that recognised that additional demands were being placed on schools, whether in the area of hand sanitiser, personal protective equipment, PPE, or the enhanced minor works grant. Whatever it happened to be, not one penny of that has been requested to be returned. Nevertheless, where schools have money they did not spend under a Covid heading, that is a different issue. If they have unspent money, they are being requested to return it, not money they have spent and used.
I acknowledged it was unspent grant money.