The programme for Government states, "We will set out capitation rates to schools on a rolling 3-year basis, allowing for forward planning." The reality is that capitation grants were cut from €200 per child to €170 by the former Government, a cut of 15%. As a result, most primary schools are relying on fundraising by parents to make up the shortfall in funding. I know this at first hand as I am on a board of management and I know the difficulties we have in trying to make up the shortfall by fundraising. This is putting huge pressure on parents and schools. When will this Government restore the capitation grant and properly fund our primary schools?

It is in both the programme for Government and the confidence and supply agreement that we will address capitation over the lifetime of the Government. In the first two budgets we gave priority to areas such as special education, the provision of SNAs, the reduction of the pupil-teacher ratio and support for disadvantaged schools and we have to make decisions within the available resources to prioritise the areas where we feel the greatest pressure is. I fully recognise that capitation is posing a problem for schools and we will be examining it in the context of the forthcoming budget.