Anger over fee-paying school's €3m grant

A private fee-paying school in south Dublin is to receive a building grant of up to €3m, it emerged today.

Education Minister Mary Hanafin announced that CBS Monkstown, which is located in her Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown constituency, had been given the go-ahead to build a new school to replace its current facility.

The rugby-playing boys’ school has 560 day students paying fees of €2,370 each and includes GOAL founder John O’Shea and playwright Bernard Farrell among its past pupils.

Although the country’s 58 fee-paying private schools received €86m in State funding this year to pay for their teaching staff, they rarely receive capital grants for building projects.

Fine Gael Education spokeswoman Olwyn Enright TD called on Ms Hanafin to explain why a fee-paying school in her constituency should be funded by the taxpayer for building works.

“This allocation may amount to several million euro, and is not justifiable given the number of free-education schools, mandated to accept all children without any fee, that are so desperately in need of repair, expansion and refurbishment.”

She said fee-paying schools should not receive monies for day-to-day expenses, or refurbishment and building costs.

CBS Monkstown gives entry priority to students from its junior school and to the relatives of current or past pupils.

In a letter to parents on the school website, principal Pat Keating said he had received a call from Ms Hanafin this morning informing him of her decision.

“The minister has listened to the merits of our case and on behalf of us all I would like to thank her for this most welcome decision. The minister’s decision means that we can proceed with confidence knowing that the physical environment for your sons will be up to the standard they deserve,” he said.

Mr Keating was not available for comment today.

Ms Hanafin also announced that she had approved building projects for 73 primary schools and 50 other secondary schools.

“The 124 schools that are being allowed to progress through the architectural planning process have been assessed as being priority projects. They are in areas where demand for school places is increasing or current facilities are considered inadequate to cater for existing needs,” she said.

As well as school extensions and refurbishment, there will be 11 new primary schools in counties such as Dublin, Cork, Kildare, Mayo and Galway and seven new secondary schools.

A Department of Education spokesman said the funding allocated to each school would not be announced until the projects went to tender.