Ceist:
414 Dr. Upton asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will provide full-time secretarial support to a school (details supplied) in Dublin 6. [10596/00]
Written Answers. - School Secretarial Services.
My Department funds the school referred to by the Deputy in respect of secretarial and caretaking services under a scheme intro duced following the Programme for Economic and Social Progress – PESP – in 1992. Under this scheme my Department provides additional capitation grants for primary schools towards the cost of secretarial and caretaking services.
I recently announced improvements in this scheme whereby all schools with 100 pupils or more receive annual grant assistance from this Department at the rate of £40 per pupil, £20 in respect of secretarial assistance and £20 in respect of caretaking assistance. My Department recently issued these grants to all qualifying schools.
While the school referred to by the Deputy has been in receipt of grant assistance under this scheme for the past number of years, the rate of the grant this year has increased from £30 per pupil to £40 per pupil. This means that the annual grant allocated to the school has increased from £15,000 to £20,000. The Deputy will appreciate that this is an increase of 33% in funding to this school in respect of this scheme. I am sure that this additional funding will assist the school in putting adequate structures in place in respect of secretarial services.