PRIVATE, FEE-PAYING schools received more than €100 million in support from the taxpayer last year.
New figures show that €99 million was spent on paying teachers’ salaries in the fee-paying sector.
The Department of Education says a further €2.1 million was spent on capital or building works in 17 fee-paying schools in 2008.
Blackrock College in Dublin tops the list of gross salary costs in 2007/8, receiving €3.9 million in support from the State.
Other schools receiving more than €3 million in annual support include Kilkenny College (€3.5 million), St Andrew’s College, Dublin (€3.4 million), Belvedere College, Dublin, (€3.3 million) and Wesley College, Dublin (€3.1 million).
St Gerard’s School in Bray, Co Wicklow, one of the the most expensive schools in the State, received €1.7 million in support. Fees are more than €6,000 a year.
Three Loreto schools in Dublin receive a total of almost €6 million in support from the taxpayer. They are Loreto, Foxrock (€2.5 million), Loreto, Beaufort (€2.3 million) and Loreto, St Stephen’s Green (€1 million).
Most of the schools in receipt of the support charge fees of about €5,000 per year.
With teacher salaries paid by the State, many schools can use the fee income to boost facilities. In many cases classrooms, laboratory, sports and other facilities are much better in fee-paying schools than in the “free” second-level sector.
The new figures are likely to intensify the debate about State support of the private fee-paying sector. In recent years, some fee-paying schools have been accused of cherry-picking students and operating restrictive admission policies.
The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) says State funding should be withdrawn from schools with restrictive admission policies and those practising “educational apartheid”.
The Government reduced annual support for fee-paying schools by some €10 million in the Budget by placing new limits on the recruitment of teachers. But Minister for Education and Science Batt O’Keeffe backs the traditional State support for the sector.
Mr O’Keeffe is reviewing school enrolment policies after a department audit last year highlighted cherry-picking by some schools.
The audit did not review the admission policies of fee-paying schools. The new salary figures were provided in response to a Dáil question by Labour spokesman on education Ruairí Quinn.
Last night he said questions would inevitably arise as to why taxpayers were subsidising an exclusive education for the most able and wealthy.
All fee-paying schools should have open enrolment policies “considering how much money these private schools get from the taxpayer”, he said.
There are 56 fee-charging second-level schools in the State of which 21 are Protestant, two inter-denominational, one Jewish and the rest Catholic. In all, the State pays the salaries of close to 1,500 teachers in private schools. From this year, fee-paying schools are entitled to one teacher for every 20 pupils, compared to one teacher for every 18 pupils last year, a net saving of about €10 million.
The TUI wants public funding withdrawn from schools which exclude any category of pupil including those with learning needs, foreign nationals and Travellers. It also wants a ban on waiting lists and on entrance tests. A ban on waiting lists is also supported by the group representing second-level principals.