Quinn to win Labour favour with private school cuts
Ahead of the publication of an audit of fee-paying schools, junior minister Alan Kelly has strongly hinted that their funding will be cut in December’s budget.
He told RTÉ’s The Week in Politics that while a case can be made for funding religious minority schools, the overall sum given to private schools must be looked at.
“In principle I think the day of being able to give €96m to €100m to private schools is something that is going to come to an end,” he said.
In 2009, the McCarthy Report recommended subventions for private schools be reduced from €100m to €75m. The report said the schools generated annual incomes from fees amounting to about €100m.
In Budget 2012, Mr Quinn increased the pupil- teacher ratio in fee-paying schools from 20:1 to 21:1 and made cuts to their capital funding. But this did not satisfy many in Labour, who passed a motion at the party’s conference in April calling for subsidies to be phased out over four years.
Demand for private education, which costs in the region of €5,000 a year per pupil, remains strong despite the economic downturn, with some schools reporting a rise in registrations.
The State paid teachers’ salaries amounting to €86.6m in 56 private, fee- paying schools for the 2011 to 2012 academic year.
A further €261,000 was paid for clerical staff and €1.85m for special needs assistants, while €28,183 in assistive technology grants was issued to private, fee- paying schools. Some €6.5m was paid in subsidies to meet other current costs.
The majority of the subsidies are concentrated in South Dublin, with the suburb of Blackrock receiving subsidies for four private schools, totalling €7.8m.
Four private schools in Cork received subsidies amounting to €9.5m. The Cistercians College in Roscrea, alma mater of former taoiseach Brian Cowen, received €900,000.
Mr Quinn has to find €77m savings in his department next year.
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