My Department provides funding to all recognised schools in the Free Education Scheme by way of per capita grants. The two main grants are the Capitation grant to cater for day to day running costs including heating, lighting etc. and the Ancillary grant to cater for the cost of employing ancillary services staff. These grants may be regarded as a common grant from which the Board of Management can allocate according to its own priorities.

As part of the Cost of Living measures introduced in the Budget, €90 million has been provided in once-off additional funding to support increased running costs for recognised primary and post-primary schools in the free education scheme, in particular in dealing with challenges they face in the light of rising energy costs.

This additional grant was paid at the rate of €75 per pupil at Primary level and €113 at Post-Primary level. Enhanced rates were also paid in respect of pupils with Special Educational needs. Further details are available in Circular 0077/2022 available on my Department’s website and may be accessed at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/circular/467fa-once-off-cost-of-living-measure-to-support-increased-school-running-costs/

In the context of the current cost of living crisis I would expect this very significant additional funding made available to schools is sufficient to meet increased running costs.

In addition to this 40% increase in grant funding in Budget 2023 to cover increased running costs, my Department has been supporting schools to access lower prices for some time.Significant work has been carried out at Department level in order to support all schools in their procurement and use of energy supplies.

My Department has ensured in recent years that centrally negotiated rates were made available to schools for electricity and bulk heating fuels through frameworks sourced by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP). Central rates are fixed for gas and electricity for those availing of those arrangements at present.

A significant number of schools have engaged with this and are availing of highly competitive energy prices. It is planned to run future competitions to ensure that bulk rates continue to be available from 2024 onwards. Information on how to avail of these arrangements is available via the Schools Procurement Unit website, www.spu.ie

The Energy in Education website portal (www.energyineducation.ie), and associated advice programme (Joint programme between SEAI and Dept. of Education) also assists schools reduce their energy consumption, and empowers participating schools and pupils to learn the benefits of sustainability. Typically, savings of between 5 and 10% are identified through low and no cost measures, while some schools participating have identified potential savings of up to 15% or more.

Budget 2023 provided for the provision of funding from the Climate Action Fund in relation to the provision of photovoltaic panels in schools up to 6 kW output. This is really positive news for our schools and will assist with their energy needs and costs along with supporting the decarbonisation of our school buildings. My officials are working closely with colleagues in the Department of Environment, Climate and Communication in relation to the arrangements for this scheme.

As part of the preparation for the roll-out of the national programme, a key first step was to establish the level of existing PV installations in schools. The primary school capacity survey is nearly complete, and the post-primary is concluded, and indications are that nearly 10% of post-primary schools have solar PV panels, and 5% of primary schools. The roll-out of the solar panel scheme is expected to commence later this year, and will be a fully funded multi-annual programme.

The scheme will include technology that will facilitate display on a digital information screen in the building general purpose area, the solar energy generation on each school from the panels. This will display in real time to the staff and pupils the renewable energy generation profile, this data can be used by students if required during classes and for their projects.

It is recognised that waiting times for many scheduled appointments and procedures were too long before and have been made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Department of Health continues to work with the HSE and the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) to identify ways to improve access to care. On the 7th March, I published the 2023 Waiting List Action Plan, which is the next stage of a new multi-annual approach to sustainably reduce and reform hospital waiting lists, and builds on the foundational work done through the short-term Waiting List Action Plan between September and December 2021, which was followed by the first full year Waiting List Action Plan for 2022, both having reversed the annual trend of rising waiting lists.

The 2023 Plan sets out the priorities to continue to address waiting lists this year. The 30 actions in the Plan, which are governed by the Waiting List Task Force, focus on delivering capacity, reforming scheduled care and enabling scheduled care reform.

For 2023, funding totalling €443 million is being allocated to tackle Waiting Lists with €363 million of this being allocated to the 2023 Waiting List Action Plan, to implement longer term reforms and provide additional public and private activity to clear backlogs exacerbated during the pandemic. This will reduce hospital waiting lists by 10% in 2023 as well as continuing to significantly reduce waiting times in line with Sláintecare recommendations. The remaining €80 million of the €443 million is being targeted at various measures to alleviate community/primary care waiting lists.

With this ambitious 2023 Waiting List Action Plan, my Department, the HSE and the NTPF are taking the next steps in the multi-annual approach towards achieving our vision of a world-class public healthcare system in which everyone has timely and transparent access to high-quality scheduled care, where and when they need it, in line with Sláintecare reforms.

In relation to the particular waiting list query raised by the Deputy, adult and child waiting list information by hospital and specialty is published monthly and is available on the NTPF website at: www.ntpf.ie/home/nwld.htm