Capitation Grants
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-13
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Martin Conway (IND), Administrative Panel

I thank the Minister of State. I have no doubt Sixmilebridge along with many other schools engage with the financial support services unit of the Department. The global point is the increase in capitation is an urgent priority, which is reflected in the Minister of State's answer. Unfortunately, they are going to have to wait until September 2026 to see that from the budget. Perhaps there is a case to introduce an emergency top-up in capitation grants for this year, if possible, but the Department is already running a deficit. The Department needs to examine whether the capitation system and structure we have at the moment are fit for purpose. There are certain standards costs every school has whether it has 60 or 600 pupils such as electricity, maintenance and cleaning. There might be a big school but it only has a small number of pupils. It is just physically big because of the structure.
The Department needs to do a body of work in reviewing the capitation system and seeing if it can be more effective than what is in place at the moment.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-13/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:56+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-13