Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 February 2024
89. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Education the number of requests to the financial support services unit by primary schools in 2023 for additional funding; and the value of the funding. provided. [6206/24]
View answerAs the Deputy may be aware, Section 18 of the Education Act 1998 requires boards of management to keep all proper and usual accounts and records of all monies received by it or expenditure of such monies incurred by it. Boards are also required to make school accounts available for inspection by me and by parents of students in the school.
The expansion of the FSSU to schools in the Primary and the Community & Comprehensive Sectors commenced on a phased basis in 2017 and 2018 respectively. Therefore, the main focus of the FSSU in recent years has been to provide advice and support to these schools in financial governance, and strengthen the existing arrangements, including standardising arrangements for compliance with accounting requirements under Section 18 of the Education Act 1998.
To date, the return of school accounts for the 2021/22 school year shows that over 99% of Primary schools and all Voluntary Secondary and Community & Comprehensive schools submitted accounts to the FSSU.
Accounts for the 2022/23 school year will not be submitted to the FSSU until February 2024.
The summary table below contains the number of schools that the Department of Education have referred to the FSSU in 2023 following receipt of a claim that they are in financial deficit, and have requested additional funding.
|
Number of Schools referred to FSSU |
Number of Schools that received an advance in funding |
Number of Schools that did not receive an advance in funding |
Number of Schools whose requests have yet to be decided |
Total amount of funding advance provided |
|
22 |
2 |
16 |
4 |
€7,686 |
