I wish to raise the serious challenges that principals in primary and secondary schools are facing with the allocation of the ancillary services grant. Since I raised this issue locally, I have been taken aback by the volume of correspondence I have received from primary and secondary school principals in my constituency but also right around the country. There is a very serious issue regarding the ancillary services grant in terms of covering the services of caretakers. I will quote from some of the correspondence I received from one primary school principal. These are the kinds of representations made to me by school principals:

Ancillary services funding was in place to pay for secretaries and caretakers. In the past two months however we were astonished to be told by the department that we would receive absolutely no funding to pay for ancillary services. The department's explanation is that under the old model we were spending all our ancillary services funding on a secretary and as they now are covering the cost, we are entitled to nothing to pay for a caretaker.

To describe this as a farcical situation would be an understatement. The principal also goes on to note that he specifically sought advice from the Department of Education on how the school is expected to pay for the cutting of hedges, the cutting of grass, the maintenance issues, and the safety and other issues in terms of the infrastructure of the school if the school receives no funding to pay for these services. He also stated the following:

From my interactions with the department on this issue, it is clear to me that they are determined to stand firm on the issue and simply hold the attitude that however a school has coped to date, they will just have to get on with it and do what they are doing. In our case if we were using parental contributions, fund-raising and relying on tradesmen working for free, well then we should continue doing that.

I am sure the Tánaiste will acknowledge that it is entirely inappropriate for the Department to give with one hand while relentlessly clawing back with the other hand. I have established through a parliamentary question response that the annual total for the ancillary grant funding has fallen from €96 million in 2019 to €83 million in 2023. This makes a mockery of what I take as the Minister's sincere wish for schools not to continually resort to parental contributions merely to enable a school to maintain itself as a safe environment. I ask the Tánaiste to urgently review and reverse the current situation whereby schools are seeing the value of ancillary grants fall. This deficit is the value of the salary paid to grant-funded secretaries. It is grossly misleading to champion progress on the secretaries' pay issue while concealing the fact that this progress is being achieved on the back of a major reduction in other areas that schools simply cannot do without, such as caretaking services.

The Deputy acknowledged that the Department has intervened in terms of the cost of secretarial services, wages, salaries and so on, which was a long running issue in primary education. Looking at the broader picture, budget 2024 provided targeted funding for school communities with an increase in capitation-related funding of over €81 million. As part of the capitation package in the budget for 2024, the Minister secured €21 million as a permanent increase in capitation funding to assist schools now and in the long term with increased day-to-day running costs. This supports a permanent restoration of capitation funding to pre-2011 levels for all recognised primary and post-primary schools. She did not reference that, but it is a very significant change in the levels of capitation funding for all schools in the free education scheme. That €81 million secured for capitation-related funding also included €60 million as part of the cost-of-living measures in budget 2024. This was paid to schools in two instalments in October 2023 and in early 2024.

This year's budget increase will bring the standard rate of capitation to €200 per student in primary schools and to €345 in voluntary secondary schools. Enhanced rates will also be paid in respect of pupils with special educational needs. This represents an increase of circa 9.2% on current standard and enhanced capitation rates. In 2023, the Minister announced €50 million to provide free schoolbooks, workbooks and copybooks for pupils in primary and special schools. This was a landmark watershed moment in terms of primary education and junior certificate. Never before were free books, copybooks and workbooks provided in this country. Under this Government the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, has done that and that is important. In this year's budget, €68 million has been secured to extend the free schoolbooks to junior cycle students.

In addition, centrally negotiated rates for electricity and bulk heating fuels have been made available to schools through frameworks sourced by the Office of Government Procurement, including a new contract with Electric Ireland for the supply of electricity to schools. That commenced on 1 May of this year and will run for three years. We have already dealt with the extension of the hot school meals programme to all non-DEIS schools that apply. In the broader picture of funding interventions to schools, there have been very significant increases. A lot of progress has been made on some of the historical issues relating to secretaries and caretakers.

I thank the Tánaiste for his response. I welcome the positive and overdue developments in funding for our schools. While there have been capitation increases, there have also been electricity cost increases. The running costs have increased and have not gone down. However, the specific issue that I raised here today is with the ancillary grant. The ancillary grant needs to be restored to the 2019 level of €96 million. It went down to €83 million last year which was a huge reduction. Because of this situation, schools do not know if they can actually employ a caretaker next year which is disrespectful to the caretaker who is the heartbeat of the school community. I know this at first hand because I was a primary school principal for a time. I know how essential our caretakers and secretaries are. Schools cannot function without caretakers and secretaries. I ask for the 2019 level of €96 million to be restored. I believe that is the only solution to this problem.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. School caretakers are essential and they play a vital role in the life of any school, as do the school secretaries. Whenever I go into a school, I always describe the school secretaries as the engine room of the school because they make things tick for the principal and everybody else. That is generally the situation. Caretakers also have a particular role to play in terms of the spirit and environment within a school. I have seen that in many schools to great effect. The issue the Deputy is raising seems to relate to funding and how certain issues get resolved. Historically schools were in a far worse position when it came to secretaries and caretakers, as were the people who were employed as school secretaries and caretakers in terms of basic and pension rights, remuneration and so on. There were many challenges. Over the years, there has been incremental progress on that. When that progress happens, some of the funding pressures on schools are taken away. I will, however, talk to the Minister for Education about the issue the Deputy has raised and I will revert to her.