Over £2.0billion spent on educational services in 2009-10

Education Minister Caitríona Ruane today announced that total spend by the Department of Education in 2009-10 was in excess of £2billion.

Speaking about the provisional outturn figures for 2009-10, reflecting an extra £90million spend on education services compared to 2008-09, the Minister said: "Last year saw record levels of expenditure in excess of £2billion for education. With spend of almost 99% on the current budget and almost 100% on the capital budget, this means full use has been made of the resources allocated to me by the Executive last year to secure continued improvement in the quality of education provided to our children and young people."

The Minister went on to say: "The level of spend on both the current and capital budgets in 2009-10 is in line with the outturn position achieved in the 2008-09 year and demonstrates continued sound financial management across the education sector ensuring resources available are fully utilised in delivering improvements in educational services."

The Minister highlighted that expenditure on the current budget amounted to some £1,835million, while on the capital budget, expenditure was in excess of £242million.

The overall level expenditure represents over 99.0% of the education budget and is in line with the 99.1% achieved in 2008-09.

On the current budget, £20.2million fell as underspend in 2009-10. The majority of this relates to underspend in Education and Library Boards and schools part of which the Minister said was attributable to the delay in the establishment of ESA. On capital investment, the level of underspend in 2009-10 was £0.1million.

The Minister said that in the past year funding to schools’ delegated budgets had increased by 5.3% compared to 2008-09, including an increase in the proportion of funding made available to primary schools. In 2009-10, the Minister also made available additional funding to assist parents on low incomes with the cost of school uniforms for primary school children. An additional £5million was also made available by the Minister to supplement the existing level of investment by the Education and Library Boards in school maintenance.

The Minister announced that expenditure on the capital budget for 2009-10 was £242million and noted that this amounted to almost full utilisation of the capital budget with 99.9% of planned spend being achieved.

This level of capital expenditure represented £43million more being used for investment in the schools’ estate capital infrastructure compared to 2008-09.

This full utilisation of the capital budget has delivered real results with 16 projects completed in the 2009-10 financial year with a total capital investment of almost £138million. The Department also approved around 500 minor works schemes in the voluntary and maintained sectors while the Education and Library Boards spent a similar amount in the controlled sector, bringing the total capital investment in minor works across the estate to over £91million in 2009/10.

The Minister concluded by stressing the vital importance of ensuring full and effective use of all resources and said that the importance of this was even more stark in the context of the continuing constrained financial position facing all public services.

Notes to Editors:

1. Current expenditure refers to expenditure on items that are consumed in the current financial year. This would include the salary and non-salary costs of teachers and other employees, maintenance and other running costs.
2. Capital expenditure refers to expenditure on items that are consumed over a period longer than one year. This would include new school buildings and improvements to existing school buildings.
3. Media queries to the Department of Education Press Office on 028 9127 9755. Out of office hours please contact the Duty Press Office via pager number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.