Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 January 2026
451. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Education and Youth the procedures involved in the calculation of the ancillary services grant for primary schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5442/26]
View answer452. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Education and Youth if there are plans to review the ancillary services grant for schools scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5443/26]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 451 and 452 together.
The Ancillary Services Grant is payable to recognised primary schools and special schools in the Free Education Scheme. The grant is intended to cater for the cost of employing Secretarial and Caretaking staff. It is up to the BOM to allocate this funding as per their priorities. As per Circular 0040/2009 the capitation grant provided for general running costs and the ancillary services grant provided for Secretarial and Caretaking services may be regarded as a common grant from which the Board of Management can allocate according to its own priorities.
After Forsa accepted the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) agreement about salaries and leave for grant-funded school secretaries, the secretaries who accepted the agreement were added to the Department of Education and Youth’s payroll from September 2023. Because of this, the ancillary-related grant funding has been updated, since schools are no longer paying these salaries directly.
Since the 2023/24 school year, schools have been paid the usual ancillary grant amount, minus the amount that schools previously paid to grant-funded secretaries prior to their acceptance of the new terms and conditions. Schools provided the Department with these details and this information is now being used to reduce the ancillary-related grant funding. Schools should be in no way disadvantaged by this, as the grant is reduced only by the amount they previously paid to their secretaries.
To date we have issued correspondence to schools with details of the arrangements for each interim period since September 2023.
Work is ongoing to identify a method of standardising the reduction to the ancillary-related grants for the longer term where school secretaries are being paid on the Department’s payroll. Note the reductions may change when a permanent model for ancillary-related grant reductions has been finalised.
