STATE FUNDING PRIVATE SCHOOL BUILDING NEEDS TO END
- PQs reveal €3.6 million spent on capital planning for private institutions in 2021/2022
Figures provided to Aodhán Ó Ríordáin TD, Labour’s Education Spokesperson, show the State has spent €588m on funding private education between 2018 – 2023.
Answers to Parliamentary Questions reveal that up to €3.6 million was spent on capital planning and building for private institutions in 2021/2022.
Deputy Ó Ríordáin said:
“Once teachers and SNAs salaries have been paid, the State shouldn’t be giving any handouts to private schools that have a fee-paying policy. They have access to this funding – why is the State subsidising their building?
“This spend is happening in the context of hard working families who are hamstrung by the costs of returning to school in September. It’s outrageous that the Minister is handing money out to private institutions like this.
“Last week, Barnardos told us that almost a quarter of secondary school parents are having to take out a loan or borrow money to meet the return to school costs. It beggars belief that the Government is devoted to continuing a two-tier approach to education.
“Education is supposed to be the great equaliser. Government is abjectly failing in this. The cost of building works for private schools should be consistently zero. I am calling for the Minister for Education to end the practice of subsidising private schools.”
ENDS
Link to PQ: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2023-07-25/506/#pq_506