Written answer
Departmental Expenditure
The additional €646 million comprises €416 million to address existing funding deficits and €230 million for post-Budget decisions, including special-needs places, school transport, survivor supports and staff pay obligations. The Department expects to stay within its 2026 allocation but declined to provide projected outturns by subhead before the audited Appropriation Account.
138. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Education and Youth to provide a breakdown, by programme subhead, of the additional €646 million allocated to her Department in 2026, distinguishing between pay and non-pay; the projected end of 2026 outrun for each subhead; and whether her Department currently projects any further expenditure beyond its revised 2026 allocation. [74462/26]
Comment on this
As the Deputy will be aware, my Department’s budget currently stands at over €14.1 billion for 2026, comprising €12.4 billion in current expenditure and €1.7 billion in capital expenditure. This includes an additional €646 million approved by Dáil Éireann to support the continued delivery of high-quality education and youth services. This enhanced funding position places the Department on a more sustainable financial footing, supporting the delivery of education and youth services across a highly demand-led sector encompassing almost 4,000 schools and one million children and young people. It will also support the continued expansion of special education provision, where demand has grown significantly in recent years.
In particular, the additional €646 million funding will provide:
• €416 million to address longstanding funding deficits on a permanent basis in the Department’s Vote. This includes €301 million for school payrolls across A3 to A6 pay subheads and €115 million for school transport services within A9 non-pay subhead. This funding will protect existing policy and allow continued implementation of existing rules on teacher allocation and eligibility for school transport.
• €230 million for decisions taken post-Budget 2026. This includes:
• €150 million for additional school places for children with special educational needs. This is to cover additional costs for extra teachers (A3 to A5 pay subheads), SNAs (A6 pay subhead), school transport (A9 non-pay subhead) and some operational costs across additional special classes and special school places.
• €40m to maintain a heavily subsidised school transport services for children and young people around the country. This has allowed for 2026/27 fees to remain well below the rates charged in 2021/22 (A9 non pay subhead).
• €13m for enhanced supports agreed for survivors of historical residential abuse (A13 non pay subhead).
• Provisional funding to meet obligations arising from negotiations of certain pay and conditions of staff working across the schools’ education sector (A7 pay subhead).
A key objective of the Department is to ensure that the education and youth sectors are managed on a sustainable fiscal basis, with expenditure monitored on an ongoing basis. Based on expenditure incurred to date this year being within the profiled budget, the Department expects overall expenditure to remain within its Voted allocation for 2026 and is not forecasting expenditure in excess of the funding available.
At this stage of the year and given the level of factors that can impact across a Budget of over €14 billion is not considered appropriate to provide a detailed breakdown of projected 2026 outturns by subhead. This information will be included in the Department's 2026 Appropriation Account that will be subject to audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General before being published.