Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 February 2026
156. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Education and Youth the current number of primary and secondary schools that are in debt; and the total amount of debt owed by primary and secondary schools, in each of the past five years. [13233/26]
View answerAs per Circulars [60/2017] (/www.gov.ie/en/department-of-education/circulars/roll-out-and-operation-of-the-financial-support-services-unit-fssu-at-primary-level/) and 02/2018 (www.gov.ie/en/department-of-education/circulars/operation-of-the-financial-support-services-unit-fssu/0 the FSSU, on behalf of the Department, acts as a central repository for the receipt of annual school accounts, as prepared by the school’s external accountant/auditor who is registered with a recognised accountancy body in the State.
The Financial Support Services Unit (FSSU), funded by the Department, is an important source of advice and support to schools on financial matters, including budgeting and cashflow management. Any schools that are experiencing financial difficulty can contact the FSSU for guidance and support. Contact details for FSSU can be found on www.fssu.ie.
As per the relevant manual for Boards of Management, debts or excesses of expenditure over income must be approved by the patron and/or trustees.
Schools have autonomy in their spending, allowing them to make decisions on spending independently at school level.
According to the financial accounts provided by schools to the FSSU the following number of schools have recorded loan amounts in their financial accounts. An important caveat to note about this data is that there are instances of variations in how items have been recorded and so the data is only based on the information provided to the FSSU.
The particular type or purpose of the loans are not known.
ETB schools are not included in these figures as they do not submit accounts to the FSSU.
|
Schools that recorded a loan greater than €100 in the financial accounts |
|
|
|
|
School Year |
No. of schools |
Total amount |
Median Amount |
|
2019/2020 |
195 |
(€18,998,908) |
(€18,347) |
|
2020/2021 |
186 |
(€14,345,830) |
(€18,726) |
|
2021/2022 |
186 |
(€10,731,422) |
(€17,150) |
|
2022/2023 |
174 |
(€13,394,734) |
(€16,758) |
|
2023/2024 |
165 |
(€8,617,291) |
(€19,309) |
