For the second year running third level fees are to be reduced by €1,000 for most students as part of once off cost-of-living measures for the 2023/24 academic year.
At post-primary level meanwhile, Junior Cycle students in State funded schools will be entitled to free school books.
The measure will cost €67 million and will benefit more than 200,000 teenagers. It amounts to funding of €310 per child.
All junior cycle students will be eligible for the free school book scheme from next year, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe has said #Budget2024 | | Follow live updates: https://t.co/GHCMX8FYfR pic.twitter.com/RDg6MwMWoD
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) October 10, 2023
Schools will get once-off additional cost-of-living funding of €60 million to help meet day to day expenses, known as capitation. Last year, the once-off support to schools amounted to €90m.
On top of this year's once-off payment, an additional €21m has been allocated in core capitation funding. The Department of Education said this combined €81m will restore school day to day funding to pre-2011 levels.
Overall, the Budget for education is €10.5 billion.
In other measures that will benefit students and their families, renters tax credits are being extended to parents who pay for their student children in 'digs’ accommodation where they rent a room in someone’s home. This will apply retrospectively for last year and this year.
The hot school meals scheme is to be extended to 900 additional primary schools next April.
Child benefit is to be extended to 18-year-olds who are still in full-time education, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe said.
Child Benefit is to be extended to 18-year-olds who are still in full-time education, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe has said #Budget2024 | | Follow live updates: https://t.co/GHCMX8FYfR pic.twitter.com/pa6P1vQLBr
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) October 10, 2023
Budget 2024 provides for the removal of fees for Post Leaving Certificate (PLC) courses from next September, and SUSI grant payments are to increase.
The SUSI adjacent maintenance rate will rise by €615. The adjacent rate will be increased by 10%, over two tranches, the first next January and the second next September.
By September 2024, maintenance grants for post graduate students will be restored for the first time since before the financial crash.
In terms of student fees, the family income threshold to be eligible for a grant to cover college fees will rise by 10% to €55,924.
Budget 2024 provides for an additional 740 special education teachers, and 1,200 special needs assistants.
Both of these increases are necessitated by demographics and by the rising number of special classes in mainstream schools to cater for children with disabilities.
An additional €50m has been made available for school bus transport.
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Live updates as Budget 2024 delivered by Govt
Concern over day-to-day funding for schools
Schools are facing a significant cut in their day-to-day funding under Budget 2024, school teacher and management representatives fear.
While the Department of Education has yet to provide a concrete breakdown, the once off cost-of-living funding for next year is one third less than that received by schools last year.
Teacher trade unions and other bodies are seeking clarification on aspects of the budget amid concern as to what it might mean for schools, and further detail is expected tomorrow.
But school leaders fear that a grant schools have received over the past more than two years for cleaning has been discontinued.
Last year schools got an additional €90m in once off capitation or day to day per child funding. This year they will receive €61m worth of once off payments, and an extra €20m added to core capitation.
At primary level last year's once off sum amounted to an additional €73 per child, on top of the existing €183 per child core capitation grant. But schools also received an additional €78 per pupil for cleaning.
This amounted to a total of around €333 per child per year. The INTO primary teacher union has said that without the cleaning grant of recent years and with a cut in the once off income, day to day funding for schools will be considerably lower next year.
"Schools are already saying that they can't pay their bills," INTO General Secretary John Boyle told RTÉ News.
He said schools "will still be expected to fundraise to meet basic expenses, and parents will still be relied upon to keep schools afloat.
"The low level of primary school funding places intolerable burdens on school principals, teachers and parents and further disadvantages pupils in DEIS schools."
The union said Budget 2024 only served "to copper fasten Ireland's place near the bottom of the league for investment in primary education".
Second level teacher union, the ASTI, is among a number of education organisations trying to work out today what Budget 2024 means for schools. The union has said that it is awaiting clarification, but that it is disappointed and concerned by what it has heard today.
It said the budget had failed to address the big issues, such as the crisis in teacher recruitment and class size.
The INTO has also criticised Budget 2024 for failing to act to reduce class size.
John Boyle said: "It would have been a legitimate hope that a government with a record budget surplus would have taken decisive action.
"Our politicians had a once in a lifetime chance to reach the EU class size average. They missed an open goal."
The Teachers' Union of Ireland said the information available so far suggested that the Government was "in no way serious about tackling the teacher recruitment and retention crisis". It said that approach was "as baffling as it is worrying".
The Union also said that it was "deeply regrettable that the political refusal to properly address the third level funding crisis appears set to continue".
