Capitation Grants
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-13
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Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

The capitation funding is hugely important for school communities. We have, over the past number of years, increased it quite substantially, almost by 50% in some instances at primary and post-primary. We will continue to review that. The grant for the next school year will be paid in the next month and we are getting the funding out to the school communities as early as we can. As all education matters are being reviewed in the context of the budget in October 2026 for 2027, they will get consideration as well but in this year alone, we have a sizeable increase in the capitation both at primary and post-primary. We will be continuing to review that because the Minister, Deputy Naughton and I, from our engagement with the school communities and management bodies, know the challenges that are out there. As the Senator alluded to, we do not have an endless pot of money so we are trying to make sure we address the many challenges we have right across the Department of education and meet the need we have within our education system. We are continuing to do it but we take the point the Senator has raised. I will certainly be reflecting on that with my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Naughton, over the next number of months. I again thank the Senator for raising the issue and for his ongoing engagement on education matters.

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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