I am taking this matter on behalf of my colleague the Minister for education, Deputy McEntee, who is unfortunately unavailable this evening. I thank Deputy Sherlock for raising this matter as it provides me with an opportunity to clarify the position in relation to the repurposing works undertaken at George’s Hill primary school in 2022. The Deputy may be aware that George’s Hill is a Catholic, co-educational primary school. The school has a current enrolment of 165 pupils and a staffing level of a principal, nine mainstream class teachers and three special class teachers. The project approved by the Department of Education and Youth in 2022 provided accommodation for three special classes and associated ancillary accommodation for students with special educational needs. In addition, repurposing works were completed to provide a general-purpose area and a rooftop play area. This project was delivered under the Department's devolved special educational needs reconfiguration and modular accommodation programme. This programme involves the use of project management supports that are designed to enable the accommodation to be provided as quickly as possible and help ease the administrative workload for school authorities in the management and delivery of projects. The project was completed in 2022. The school principal made contact with the Department of Education and Youth’s planning and building unit earlier this year relating to a request for further works. It appears that the works described may fall within the scope of the Department’s emergency works scheme. The advice given to the principal was that the next step was for the school to submit an application under the emergency works scheme for consideration. The Department has no record of receiving an application from the school and will make contact with the school directly in this regard. Since 2020, the Department of Education and Youth has invested over €6 billion in schools throughout the country under the national development plan, involving the completion of over 1,300 school building projects. Government support for this investment, including by way of supplementary capital funding, has delivered real benefits for school communities. Supplementary capital funding of €210 million was approved by the Government and has brought the total capital allocation for 2025 for the Department of Education and Youth to €1.6 billion.
Sentiment score: 0.19
I listened to what the Deputy said and some of the charges she made are fairly grim. My understanding, from reading the reply prepared for me, is that the works that were contracted for in 2022 have been completed. It was only this year that the school principal made contact with the Department looking for further works to be carried out. As of when this reply was put together, the application had not yet come in from the school.
Sentiment score: -0.12
They could put in a report from an engineer with a costing on it, I am sure. Nothing has been received. The Department has no record of receiving it. It is going to make contact directly with the school as soon as possible because it is important that no school or child be left in a danger, if that is the case. I come from a construction background. If the works were completed in 2022 and it was 2025 before the principal made contact, I would be concerned.
Sentiment score: -0.09
To fully answer the Deputy's question, I will take her concerns back to the Minister. The Department will be making contact with the principal as a matter of course because no application has come in yet. If there are difficulties in that regard, I am sure the Department of education will be able to assist with advice on how to get the costings together in order to make the application formally.
Sentiment score: -0.08
I am taking this matter on the behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth, Deputy McEntee. I thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to outline to the House the position in respect of St Mary’s Boys National School, Blackrock, County Dublin. The Department is committed to offering all available and appropriate supports to schools. As the Deputy rightly pointed out, budget 2026 includes €39 million towards increased capitation funding for primary, post-primary and special schools to provide additional financial support towards their running costs. This will see an increase in the standard capitation rates paid to schools of €50 per pupil for primary schools, from €224 to €274, and of €20 per pupil for post-primary schools, from €386 to €406. Over the past three budgets there has been in an increase of 49.7% in the level of capitation rates paid to primary schools. The ancillary services grant is payable to recognised primary schools and special schools in the free education system. The grant is intended to cater for the cost of employing secretaries and caretaking staff. It is up to the boards of management to allocate this funding as per their priorities. As per Circular 40/09, the capitation grant provided for general running costs and the ancillary services grant provided for secretarial and caretaking services may be regarded as a common grant from which the board of management can allocate according to its own priorities. After Fórsa accepted the Workplace Relations Commission agreement about salaries and leave for grant-funded school secretaries, the secretaries who accepted the agreement were added to the Department of education's payroll from September 2023. Because of this, the ancillary-related grant funding has been updated. Schools are no longer paying these salaries directly. Since the 2023-2024 school year, schools have been paid the usual ancillary grant amount minus the amount that schools previously paid to grant-funded secretaries prior to their acceptance of the new terms and conditions. Schools provided the Department with these details and this information is now being used to reduce the ancillary-related grant funding. Schools should be in no way disadvantaged by this as the grant is reduced only by the amount they previously paid to their secretaries. To date we have issued correspondence to schools with details of the arrangements for September to December 2023, January to August 2024, September to December 2024 and January to August 2025. In some situations, the salaries of ancillary staff in a particular school may have been higher than the ancillary grant due to the school and the school may have funded this difference via other revenue streams. In situations where the salary that a school was paying their secretary was higher than the ancillary grant due to the school prior to them being added to the Department of education’s payroll, the ancillary grant is reduced to nil. This should not impact the school's financial position. For the specific school mentioned, the ancillary grant has now been reduced to nil as the salary the school was previously paying their secretaries, prior to their moving to the Department's payroll, is now higher than the ancillary grant available to the school prior to reductions being applied. A full review of the grant was completed by the Department in September 2025 and an update was provided to the school on the breakdown of the grant. The rate of ancillary services grant has not decreased and continues to be paid based on the relevant enrolments in the school multiplied by the rates set out in Circular 17/21. Work is ongoing to identify a method of standardising the reduction to the ancillary-related grants for the longer term where school secretaries are being paid on the Department's payroll. The House should note that the reductions may change when a permanent model for ancillary-related grant reductions has been finalised. The financial support services unit, funded by the Department, is an important source of advice and support to schools on financial matters, including budgeting and cash flow management. Contact can be found on its website.
Sentiment score: 0.38
I feel the Deputy's frustration. I will repeat what is contained in the reply. For the specific school mentioned the ancillary grant has now been reduced to nil because the salary the school was previously paying its secretaries before they moved to the Department's payroll is now higher than the ancillary grant available to the school prior to the reductions being applied. A full review of the grant was completed by the Department in September of this year, and an update was provided to the school on the breakdown of the grant. I suggest that if the school is not happy with the breakdown of the grant, its representatives should go back to the bean counters, as the Deputy called them, or whoever did this in the Department. If the breakdown is wrong, the school should be able to demonstrate that it is wrong. Genuinely, no school should be penalised as a result of the good work that was done to get school secretaries onto the Department of education payroll. If there is a particular problem with this school such as an anomaly in the way the calculations are being done - the Deputy has the update from the school, and the breakdown of the grant has been given to the school by the Department - there is a bit of work to be done between the school and the Department to sort it out. I will definitely bring this matter back to the Minister. I suggest that the Deputy should speak to the school's board of management and the school authorities to make sure they have received the breakdown of the grant with the clarifications on it. If the school representatives do not agree with that breakdown, my suggestion is that they should go back to the Department and try to get the matter ironed out that way. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. It could be an issue in other schools so we have to get it right. The transfer of school secretaries to the Department of education payroll was the right move - it is very important that we applaud it - but I do not believe schools should lose out as a result of the good work that was done at that time.
Sentiment score: 0.11