Sinn Féin have called for State funding for private schools to be phased out, as they say it is unfair to the average taxpayer.

Despite some parents paying thousands of euros to private schools every year, teachers' salaries and certain grants are still covered by the State.

The Sunday Times revealed that the top ten most expensive private schools in the country still received millions from the State in capital grants.

A group of school children in school uniforms. Image: NorthScape / Alamy Stock Photo

One example included St Columba’s College, which charges €11,000 a year in fees and also received €1.8 million worth of State funding in 2024.

Some have argued that teachers have to be paid anyway, and fee-paying allows for other school expenses to be covered internally, leading to less State costs overall.

Meath East TD for Sinn Féin Darren O'Rourke told The Anton Savage Show that he does not accept this argument.

“I think there’s some fundamental principles at play here,” he said.

“Principally the one for us in Sinn Féin is that we don’t believe that ordinary taxpayers should be subsidising an education system that they are in effect excluded from based on not having the ability to pay the exorbitant fees.

“I look at it from the perspective of someone, say for example, in Killinarden this morning, who is working hard from one end of the week to the other and subsidising private fee-paying schools.

“At the same time their local school is saying that they are at risk of closure due to massive underfunding.”

Sacred Heart Junior School in the Killinarden area of Tallaght has announced it will have to close because it can no longer afford to pay basic bills.

The school is said to have “suffered massive underfunding for many years” due to cuts from the Department of Education.

Sacred Heart Primary School in Killinarden, Tallaght. Google Maps

Deputy O’Rourke said that Sinn Féin’s proposal would allow private schools to transition to State schools if they truly could not manage without public funding.

“We would have to look at the detail about how we would do that,” he said.

“But ultimately, before we got to that point, parents would have a choice.

“We could envisage a scenario where, if it is the case that these private schools believe that their public funding is essential to sustain them, they could come into the public system and they could be publicly funded.

“But they would need not to have fees for students going to those schools.”

According to Deputy O’Rourke, a further investigation is needed to understand the flow of State funding into private schools.

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Main image: Graduation gap hat on Euro and US dollar banknotes money, Education study fee learning teach concept. Image: Panther Media GmbH / Alamy. 6 March 2022