Education department will not fund any new fee-paying schools

The perception that fee-paying schools are creating a two-tiered education system is at odds with the reality, Minister for Education Mary Hanafin has said.

The Department of Education has said it will not be funding any new fee-paying schools. The department currently pays for the teachers in 56 fee-paying schools, although the same schools do not receive a capitation grant and get reduced capital support.

A spokeswoman for the department said the policy has been in place for two years since a new fee-paying school in Ballsbridge, the International School of Dublin, was refused State aid, and there has been no demand for new fee-paying schools since then.

The policy was revealed in reply to a parliamentary question tabled by Labour's education spokesman Ruairí Quinn in the Dáil last week.

The abolition of university fees and increasing prosperity has created huge demand for places in traditional fee-paying schools, but the Minister says they remain only a small part of the overall education system.

"We know there are people who would like private education. It is a matter of parental choice, but naturally with the taxpayers' resources I want to make sure that they are best used, and I don't believe that any new fee-paying school should be supported.

"I think the impression is more than the reality. Over the last 10 years there has only been an increase of 2,000 students attending the fee-paying schools. Out of a total of 850,000 pupils, we only have 28,000 who are actually attending the fee-paying schools, and that has only gone up by 2,000 in the last 10 years."

Existing fee-paying schools would not be affected by the decision. "I don't see any reason to change the policy of supporting them. I recognise that a lot of them are supporting the minority religions."

The major secondary teaching unions have supported the policy, although Teachers Union of Ireland president Tim O'Meara said Ms Hanafin should go further. "We feel she needs to do something in relation to existing fee-paying schools who don't take their fair share of children with special needs or behavioural problems."

A spokeswoman for the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland said it supported a policy of free education and opportunity for all.