I am pleased to have been able to provide for a 5% increase in capitation funding for primary and post primary schools that will apply from the start of the 2019/20 school year. The first and full year costs of this increase is €4 million and €10 million respectively.
I must be prudent in the context of ongoing budgetary pressures. Where it is not possible to do everything that I would like to do in the education sector in any one year I have to prioritise, especially in the context of increasing enrolments.
It is my intention to seek funding for further capitation increases in future budgets.
Each 1% increase in capitation and related grants for primary and post-primary schools would cost approximately €2m. The following table sets out the estimated cost of increasing the capitation grant by 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%.
% increase
|
Cost of increase
|
10%
|
€20m
|
20%
|
€40m
|
30%
|
€60m
|
40%
|
€80m
|
50%
|
€100m
|