Religious or voluntary secondary schools are being forced to depend on cash-strapped families for funding.

That's according to an ESRI report into the funding of Irish secondary schools.

Voluntary secondary schools only get about 65% of their funding from the government, compared with the roughly four-fifths of funding given to vocational and comprehensive or community schools.

Professor Emer Smyth of the ESRI says that puts a lot more responsibility on parents to fund their children's schools:

The ESRI report says the disparity in funding has led to a lack of transparency in school funding.