Bruton warned schools will be obliged to close over cutbacks

Peter Coakley has just come back from checking the school's gas boiler, which is on the blink again. It provides heat for the 500-plus children at his primary school.

"We'll need someone out to take a look at it," says Coakley, principal of St Mary's, a boys' national school in Maynooth.

“You just hope it’s nothing major. We’re already in the red for the past two years . . . The school is being run on a shoestring, but there comes a point where you just can’t afford to plug all the gaps.”

It’s a familiar situation facing many schools . Most have been forced to absorb austerity-era cuts to capitation grants and other sources of funding over recent years. Many, however, feel they are reaching a tipping point where they can no longer be sure they can afford to keep basic services going.

The new Minister for Education Richard Bruton has been alerted to the emerging problem in briefing material prepared by civil servants.

While this advice is generally taciturn in nature, the language on school funding is uncharacteristically blunt.

It states that schools could be “obliged to close” as a result of reduced funding, and the inadequacy of capitation funding for schools, intended to cover day- to-day running costs, is now a “critical issue”.

Trigger closure

“The current reduced funding levels for all schools create a risk that some schools may not be able to cover critical costs – the absence of which could trigger school closure,” the documents say.

“A school that is unable to meet insurance or heat and light costs will be obliged to close regardless of class size,” the briefing material said.

The Irish National Teachers Organisation has called on the Government to immediately address the funding "crisis".

A spokeswoman for Mr Bruton said yesterday the Government would not allow a situation to develop where schools would have to close.

She said the programme for government provided for improvements in school resources, including for capitation rates, to be set out on a rolling three-year basis. It also plans to reduce class sizes at junior and senior infants.

“Improving funding for schools will be one of the priorities to be considered by Minister Bruton in the context of the budgetary process . . ,” she said.

Coakley, however, says many schools cannot afford to wait for a gradual improvement in finances. He says money for resource teaching has been slashed, while tuition-related grants for other subjects have been wiped out.

Widening gap

“If you can’t afford to maintain plumbing, heating and other parts of the building. you end up having to replace them entirely. So it’s even more expensive.”

The school has been in the red for the past two years, he says, and the gap between income and spending is widening.

He insists the school has been prudent in its expenditure: it rents out rooms and facilities to groups involved in yoga, Taekwon-Do and soccer.

Coakley acknowledges that, despite challenges, his school is in a better position than many to weather financial strains.

The generosity of parents has been crucial in keeping the school above water via a “voluntary contribution” of €50 a year, while there is regular fundraising to help deliver literary initiatives and other forms of classroom support.