Vol. 497 No. 6
235 Mr. S. Ryan asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will raise the amount of the grant for caretaking and clerical services in primary schools in line with annual cost of living increases which accrued since the implementation of the scheme or pay £30 per pupil for all pupils in the school and not cap the grant at 500 pupils which is causing difficulties for schools with more than 500. [25957/98]
Arising from the Programme for Economic and Social Progress, a scheme was introduced in 1992 whereby my Department provides additional capitation grants for primary schools towards the cost of caretaking and clerical services.
Under the PESP scheme, schools receive grants of £30 per pupil — £15 per pupil in respect of each service — to a maximum of £15,000 per annum, which are paid as additions to the standard per capita grant. The scheme, by its nature, is flexible and gives boards of management full discretion as to the level and extent of the services to which the grants are to be applied.
Since its introduction in 1992, the scheme of additional capitation grants to schools in respect of such services has been expanded in line with undertakings given in the PESP. The priority has been to extend the scheme in the first instance to schools which have no caretaking or clerical provision already. In this regard the scheme has been extended to include more schools by reducing the qualifying enrolment threshold to its current figure of 195 pupils, with an ultimate target of providing additional capitation grants to all primary schools with 100 pupils or more.
