TO help alleviate some of the financial burden associated with providing preschool or after-school places for children, any income from such services will not affect the handing down of government funding.
That’s according to Minister for the Department of Children, Roderic O’Gorman, in response to a parliamentary question from Limerick TD Richard O’Donoghue.
“To assist schools in considering applications for use of their facilities, the Department of Education has published procedures on the use of school buildings outside of school hours,” the Minister and new Green Party leader told the Limerick TD.
“To encourage the greater use of such facilities, the Department of Education has committed to provide schools with a guarantee that any income from after-school use of their facilities will not affect their State grants, capitation fees, or any other form of departmental funding.”
Such a proposed facility was raised by Deputy O’Donoghue at an earlier sitting of the Dáil.
Welcoming the confirmation from the Minster, Deputy O’Donoghue said he wanted to “thank the people who come together to put in place after-school places for children and preschools for what they do to make sure they are feeder schools and they allow people to work and to have the infrastructure in their areas”.
“When it comes to funding these preschools, the Department provides matched funding. In Bruff, for instance, where they are trying to build a preschool and after-school service, every time they go to the contractor the cost is going up week-on-week because of inflation.
“The Government needs to step in here and make sure there is a fund put in place so that, where inflation is rising by 10 per cent or 15 per cent on building contracts, they cover the full amount of that to make sure these preschools and after-schools are fully funded because the rest of it comes back to the communities to raise to make sure our schools survive.”
Deputy O’Donoghue said that “the people in the schools and in the parishes we represent go above and beyond and no money would pay them for what they do to make sure the education of the children going forward is protected.”
Mr O’Gorman didn’t specifically comment on the Bruff school or the possibility of additional funding.
