Public funding private schools at €115m cost

Government cuts and falling enrolments have seen taxpayer funding of fee-paying schools’ teacher salaries drop 11% in five years to below €97m.

But total public funding of around €115m still helps in the running of 56 schools outside the free education scheme, despite continued opposition to the payments from Education Minister Ruairi Quinn’s Labour Party.

A number of fee-paying schools are in talks with the Department of Education about following Kilkenny College into the fully state-funded scheme.