Labour leader Pat Rabbitte has demanded a doubling of the capitation grant for primary schools and an end to the dependence on voluntary donations by parents.
Ireland lags behind most other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries in almost every sector when it comes to spending on education, he said in a statement yesterday.
He pointed to the situation in Laytown, Co Meath "where no national school has been built since 1974; where a whole cohort of Junior Infants are being schooled in a secondary school gym, with only two adult sized toilets between them, and where there are now no sporting facilities for the 600 teenagers in the rest of the school".
Schools are given a capitation grant based on their enrolment figures for the year. That grant is expected to cover insurance costs, heating, lighting, electricity, cleaning, general upkeep of the school and some teaching resources and materials.
Mr Rabbitte said the primary capitation grant increased by 11 per cent this year, but this contrasted with energy prices. Gas rose by 34 per cent and electricity by 20 per cent.
"However, the biggest claim on the capitation grant is insurance, which absorbs an average of 40 per cent of the total grant. In our survey of running costs of primary schools, one principal reported that of her school's €12,700 grant, €11,900 was required for insurance. That left a grand total of €800 to run the school for the rest of the year."
The Labour Party, he said, believes that free education means just that - no fundraising for essentials.
"We want to see the primary school capitation grant doubled . . . We want a block grant to cover utilities and repairs, big enough to have a margin of trust so that if school leaders face an emergency, like a fallen-in roof, they can fix it without going begging to parents."
Meanwhile, measures to assist large schools, schools with high numbers of special needs classes or a specialist autistic unit have been announced by Minister for Education Mary Hanafin.
These include the allocation of additional teachers to allow deputy principals in schools with 24 or more mainstream-class teachers operate as administrative deputy principals.