asked the Minister for Education if he is aware of any national schools whose bank accounts for heating, cleaning and maintenance purposes are in overdraft; the actual or estimated number of such schools; and if he will make a statement about any action he has taken or proposes to take in relation to any such breaches of the agreement under which capitation grants are paid to the schools in question.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - National School Maintenance Grants.
2.
Paragraph 22 of the Constitution and Rules of Procedure for Boards of Management of National Schools provides that
Under no circumstances should Boards' expenditure exceed their income; overdrafts or other forms of debt or excesses of expenditure over income should not be incurred at any time.
I am aware, however, that overdrafts have been incurred by some schools. This comes to light when the school accounts are audited but, as it is not possible to audit all school accounts each year, the number of schools with overdrafts at any particular time is not known.
When the incurring of an overdraft comes to light the attention of the board of management is directed to the irregularity and they are asked to ensure that the position is corrected. I also arranged for the issue of a special circular letter in 1978 drawing the attention of all schools to the necessity for maintaining expenditure within the limits of the income provided by State grants and local contributions.
Given that the Minister has not carried out an audit of all schools, could he indicate roughly what percentage of the schools he has audited are on overdraft and perhaps give us an estimate of the total number of schools which might be on overdraft based on that figure? Would it be 5 per cent, 10 per cent or half of them?
The Deputy will appreciate that, if it has not been possible to carry out an audit of all schools—and it would be a formidable task—I cannot give him the figures. If the Deputy submits a question at a later date asking for the percentage, it may be possible to get that information. However, on the information which has been provided to me here, it would not be possible for me to give even an approximate guess at the percentage in question.
The Minister indicated that he had found some schools which were on overdraft. Given that this is not the total number of schools, could he tell the House how many schools are on overdraft?
The question, unfortunately, did not ask for that specific information. If a question in that form were tabled then I am quite sure the number of schools to date who have overdrafts could be made available.
Would the Minister not agree that the simple reason why schools are on overdraft is that they have not got enough money to pay for the basic functions of running a school and we need to do something about that?
That is a different matter.
Is not the usual reason why people go into overdraft because they have not enough money?
In respect of the last three years the State has increased by £2.4 million the contribution which it is making to schools. In respect of the previous two years there was no State contribution.
The State has given back four times that much in wealth tax.