THE Department of Education received an additional €700m in funding for next year after a large structural underfunding gap was identified in the run-up to Budget 2027.
Other Government departments were levied to make up the difference and negotiations were tense, although Minister Hildegarde Naughton said she made “no apologies” for the extra claim.
Some 86% of the department’s spending, around €10.7bn, goes on pay for its 114,000 staff and 50,000 retirees.
Of the other spending, the headline figure was a total of €53m in full year costs being provided for a permanent increase in mainstream capitation grant funding for schools.
This will see an increase in the mainstream capitation grant rate paid to primary schools of €68 per pupil from €274 to €342 and in post-primary schools of €40 per student from €406 to €446 effective from the 2027/28 school year.
The Budget also provided for 2,339 additional SNAs, bringing the total number of SNAs in schools to 28,000.
The School Transport Scheme budget will increase to €687 million in 2027.
There was €21 million to support the DEIS Plus programme, and €7 million to continue the roll out of Education Therapy Services within special schools and gradual extension into mainstream schools.
The main teachers’ unions were unimpressed with the extra spending. The INTO called it “utterly unacceptable and unforgivable” that the Government ignored its campaign for 1,000 more primary teachers.
General secretary John Boyle said the tax changes “barely make up for last year’s anti-worker, pro-big-business Budget” and members will be worse off in 2027 once inflation is counted.
The TUI said the Budget won’t fix “unacceptably large class sizes” or those schools struggling to keep newly appointed teachers. It said the third-level student-to-staff ratio is 19:1, against 15:1 in the OECD and Europe.
ASTI President Richie Bell called the €40 rise in the second-level capitation grant inadequate and said Ireland spends hundreds of euro less per second-level student than the OECD and EU averages.