The taxpayer is subsidising 50 private secondary schools by more than €140 million a year, new figures show.
The vast bulk of funding goes toward salaries for teachers and special needs assistants, followed by funding for capital supports such as school buildings and IT equipment.
State funding for fee-charging schools is a source of political debate with Sinn Féin and Labour pledging to phase out grant aid for the sector in their recent general election manifestos, while Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael would maintain the current system.
A Department of Education spokesman said if parents of children in the fee-charging sector chose to send their children to the schools in the free education system, the State would have to fund those school places.
“The allocation ratio applicable to fee-charging schools is currently 23.1, which means that the Department pays the salaries of one teacher for every 23 pupils in these schools compared with one teacher for every 19 pupils in schools in the Free Education Scheme,” the spokesman added. “Gross expenditure incurred by the Department of Education on salaries for teachers and special needs assistants [including employer’s PRSI] in fee-charging schools was €131m for the 2022/2023 school year and €143 million for the 2023/24 school year.
“Capital supports [building-related and ICT grants] are also available to such schools totalling over €0.5 million in 2023 and €1.9m in 2024. To note there was no ICT grant made in [the] 2022/23 school year.”
Labour MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, however, said he “didn’t buy the argument” that the State would end up paying more if public funding of private schools ceased.
“I’m not convinced these schools would close,” he said. “The reality is that many of them have vast financial resources available to them and could easily survive without public funding — we know that from previous studies.”
[ Fees have jumped across many private secondary schools. Why?Opens in new window ]
This is a reference to a review conducted by the department into the income of private schools in 2013. It found fee-charging schools had more than €80 million available to them to privately recruit additional subject teachers and ancillary staff or to invest in facilities and extracurricular activities.
Principals of fee-charging schools argue that many are struggling and have been forced to hike their fees on the back of being excluded from new State grants for items such as free schoolbooks, solar panels and science laboratories.
An analysis of fees for the private school sector shows charges are rising with year-on-year increases of between 3 and 19 per cent across many schools. Annual fees for day pupils range from more than €4,000 to almost €14,000.
The highest charges for day pupils are at Glenstal Abbey in Limerick, where fees for “day boarders” are €13,933. The next highest is St Columba’s College in Dublin 16 (€10,770), followed by the King’s Hospital in Dublin 20 (€8,910).
For boarding schools, fees are highest at St Columba’s College (€28,966), Clongowes Wood College, Co Kildare (€27,957) and Rathdown School, Glenageary, Co Dublin (€23,400).
Michael Hall, principal of Sligo Grammar School, which recorded the biggest year-on-year fee increase, said it was unfair that schools which were private for historical or faith reasons received significantly less funding.
“Why are we being treated like this? It’s not the school, it’s the families — the young people — who are being impacted and the minority faith disproportionately,” said Mr Hall, whose school operates under Church of Ireland management.
Latest enrolment statistics, meanwhile, show numbers attending the 50 private secondary schools in the State have climbed slightly to almost 27,500 pupils, the highest total on record.
This is despite a decision by some smaller and more regional private schools to join the “free scheme” in the years following the economic downturn when enrolments dipped for a time.
Principals say enrolments have been growing in more recent times due to a combination of demographics and increased interest from international students seeking an education through English since Brexit.
Fee-charging schools in the United Kingdom are proportionately much more expensive as they do not receive government funding and rely exclusively on fees for their income.
Private schools in the Republic account for just under 7 per cent of enrolments regarding second-level schools nationally. These do not include independent schools which do not receive any Department of Education funding and tend to be aimed mainly at international students.
