Schools under pressure due to slow payment of grants

THE uncertainty over payment of the Minor Works Grant to primary schools was raised at Wicklow County Council last week.

Cllr Joe Behan said he had been contacted by Rory Healy, the principal of Scoil Mhuire na n-Áird in Shillelagh, regarding the funding crisis the school was experiencing because of the delay in paying the grant.

Mr Healy said that the school had been forced to use the money from the Minor Works Grant as ‘core funding due to the successive cutbacks to our funding in the past number of years, we find ourselves in a very tight corner financially at present.

‘Our costs remain consistent, but our funding is now significantly reduced,’ Mr Healy had told Cllr Behan.

Mr Healy said that the delay in processing the grant and the uncertainty over whether the school would receive it was causing untold financial hardship on the school. He also raised the issue of VAT rebate pointing out that ‘in every other way, we operate as a business but are not afforded the possibility of claiming VAT back on purchases. This move would lessen pressure on school finances considerably.’

During a suspension of standing order Cllr Behan said that the council should immediately contact the Department of Education regarding the payment of the grants.

‘Scoil Mhuire na n-Áird, Shillelagh and many other primary schools are totally reliant on this funding to make ends meet at this time in the school year. It is a disgrace that schools up and down this county are forced to wait for an excessively long time for the payment of meagre grants needed to keep the primary schools of our county financially viable and it makes a laughing stock of the notion of free education.

‘School Boards of Management are voluntary bodies tasked with the management of places of learning and should not have to be chasing the Department of Education for timely payment of grants which are vital to the financial survival of their schools.’

Cllr Behan said he would also be contacting the Department about the issue of VAT as it ‘would assist the finances of schools if it were conceded in the future. The funding of primary education has always lagged behind second and third levels and the whole issue needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency by Government’, said Cllr Behan.

Late last week it was announced nationally that the Minor Works Grant would be paid over to schools this week.