Vol. 573 No. 3
387 Mr. F. McGrath asked the Minister for Education and Science if the maximum financial assistance will be given to all second level schools particularly in grants to alleviate their funding crisis (details supplied). [25544/03]
Significant improvements have been made in the level of funding to secondary schools. The standard per capita grant from €224.74 that applied in 1997, was increased to €266.49 in September 2002. An additional per capita grant of €38.09 is paid to disadvantaged schools bringing the total per capita grant in the case of such schools to over €300.
In addition, under the school services support fund initiative, secondary schools have benefited from further significant increases in the support services grant from €25.40 per pupil in 2000 to €127 per pupil from 1 January 2003 subject to a minimum of €25,400 per school. It is my intention to improve the level of funding to secondary schools as resources permit.
Question Nos. 388 and 389 answered with Question No. 362.
