The Minister for Education and Science has announced that, for the first time in the history of the State, the Government will offer to pay for all school sites, thus becoming the owner of all new school sites and buildings.
The announcement was welcomed by the chairman of the Catholic Hierarchy's education commission, Bishop Thomas Flynn, who said that fund-raising had been a "huge problem" for Catholic schools over the years.
He was not concerned that the move might lead to greater State encroachment on Catholic education, since the church and the Government had recently drawn up an agreement outlining a deed of trust which would guarantee the ethos of Catholic primary schools.
Mr Martin said in Cork yesterday that existing regulations required the patrons of most schools - usually churches or religious orders, or, in the case of multi-denominational schools, parents - to fully fund the purchase of school sites and pay up to 15 per cent of the cost of all building work.
Up to now the State has paid the full cost of sites for VEC schools, community and comprehensive schools and Gaelscoileanna only.
From now on the local church and parental contribution to new school buildings will be reduced to 5 per cent and capped at £50,000, and their contribution to the cost of renovations, including extensions, will be reduced to 10 per cent and capped at £25,000. Thus a £1 million extension which would previously have meant a local contribution of £150,000 will now require the school to provide only £25,000.
The local contribution for special schools and those designated as serving areas of significant disadvantage will be even lower, at 5 per cent, with a cap of £10,000. These changes will take immediate effect.
The Minister said that this was "the most significant change in the State funding of school capital projects since independence". It would have a "particular impact" for multi-denominational schools, which had often struggled to meet the high cost of land and buildings in major urban areas.
New schools provided under these changes would be owned by the State and would be leased to the patrons under a lease or a deed of trust.
Mr Martin first signalled the move to State funding of new school sites a year ago when he told parents at the multi-denominational Galway School Project that the State would buy a £250,000 site for the school. He appeared to be acting on a recommendation from his Department's advisory commission on school accommodation that new multi-denominational schools should be treated in the same manner as Gaelscoileanna: the State should buy sites for them and provide 100 per cent capital funding.
In the event, Mr Martin has not adopted this recommendation in full, conscious that he would have incurred the wrath of the powerful denominational school lobby. Instead, he has abolished site costs and reduced building costs for all privately-owned schools. This is expected to cost the Exchequer about £4 million a year.
The announcement was welcomed yesterday by the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland, who said it would "significantly level the playing field" in terms of the funding arrangements for different categories of second-level schools.
The only group who might still have a small gripe are the Gaelscoileanna. In the future, new Gaelscoileanna will have to provide 5 per cent of the cost of new buildings, subject to a £50,000 ceiling; existing Gaelscoileanna pay nothing. However, this is balanced by a reduction from 15 to 10 per cent - with a £25,000 ceiling - in the capital contribution they have to pay towards renovations.