Vol. 513 No. 1
777 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Education and Science the impact his new announcement of extra resources for caretaking and secretarial assistance will have on the resources of a school (details supplied) in Dublin 5 which has only a shared secretarial and £5,000 for caretaking services. [1771/00]
My Department provides funding towards the cost of secretarial and caretaking services in primary schools under two separate schemes. One scheme is the 1978-79 scheme for the employment of school secretaries and caretakers under which my Department meets the full cost of salary and employer's PRSI. This scheme is, however, being phased out as posts become vacant.
Arising from the Programme for Economic and Social Progress, a second scheme was introduced in 1992 whereby my Department provides additional capitation grants for primary schools towards the cost of secretarial and caretaking services. Under the PESP scheme, schools receive grants of £30 per pupil, based on their enrolments, which are paid as additions to the standard per capita grant.
With effect from January of this year, all primary schools with 100 or more pupils have become eligible for a grant towards secretarial and caretaking services under this scheme. Costing £2.7 million, this improvement of the scheme will benefit approximately 650 schools serving 90,000 pupils. My Department is currently making arrangements for the issuing of these grants to schools. Due to the need to develop an IT programme, and the necessity to verify all school enrolments for September 1999, it is expected that these grants will issue to schools in March of this year.
