Vol. 550 No. 4
50 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Education and Science further to Parliamentary Question No. 144 of 15 November 2001 the progress made on addressing insurance costs and insurance companies demands on primary and secondary schools in the Dublin area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8323/02]
At primary level, schools' running costs have been traditionally met by my Department's scheme of capitation grants. These grants are intended to contribute towards the general operating costs of primary schools, including insurance costs. The capitation grant has been increased substantially since the Government took office in 1997. It has been increased from £45 per pupil in 1997 to £80, €101.58, per pupil in this school year. In addition a further increase of €10 per pupil will apply from September 2002. This constitutes an increase of some 95% over that period and is a reflection of the Government's commitment to improve funding to the education sector.
In the case of secondary schools, it is a matter for the managerial authorities of the individual schools to arrange insurance cover on school property and against public liability. Grant aid towards voluntary secondary school funding costs is provided by my Department by way of per capita grants and may be used for this purpose. In recent times, significant improvements have been made in the level of per capita grants at post primary level. The standard per capita grant has been increased from £177, €224.74, in 1999 to its current level of £202, €256.49, per pupil. A further increase of €10 comes into effect from September, 2002, bringing the per capita rate to €266.49. For a school with 500 pupils, this amounts to an extra €20,873 per annum, and a total capitation grant of €133,245 towards general expenses.
In addition to the standard per capita grant, I have already shown my commitment to increasing funding for secondary schools and in this regard I established the school services support fund. Under this fund, all second level schools will receive an increase in the support grant from £20, €25.40, per pupil to £78, €99.04, per pupil over this school year and the next. I enhanced the schools services support fund in December 2001. This equalisation measure for voluntary secondary schools was designed to reduce the historic anomalies in the funding arrangements for the different school types at second level. Under the enhanced school services support fund, all voluntary secondary schools will receive an enhanced grant of £65, €82.53, per pupil, subject to a maximum enhanced grant of £5,250, €6,666.12, per school. For voluntary secondary schools, not embraced by the 1978 secretary scheme, the grant will be further increased to £85, €107.93, subject to a maximum enhanced grant of £7,000, €8,888.17, per school. The impact of this improvement is that the maximum combined increase in funding in 2001, under this equalisation initiative, in the case of secondary schools, not embraced by the 1978 secretary scheme amounts to £12,250, €15,554.29, per school.
