Chapter 2 — Finance

The request for accounts in 1954

The Department’s protracted struggle to get detailed accounts about each school reveals: (1)The power of the Congregations to resist pressure from the Department. Within their institutions the Resident Managers had near absolute power and they defended their ‘established rights’ vigorously. Without their consent, the Department could not obtain what it wanted. (2)The Department may have been sympathetic to the argument that the schools were under-funded but was aware that the situation differed across institutions. A fair decision on how much was needed to keep a child in a school depended not just on the cost of living but on the resources of the school. These resources remained a largely unknown quantity. (3)The accounts that were submitted were not as detailed as the Department wanted. Details of other income, such as from the farms or trades, were not included until the 1960s. (4)The capitation grant remained the only system of funding given consideration. Despite repeated efforts by the Department of Education to find out the different needs of each institution, it failed. Without knowing the different needs of children in different schools, it continued the system of paying the same amount for every child. The capitation grant remained the basic system until 1984.

The process for increases in the capitation grant

The Department of Education determined the capitation grant rate for committed children, but any increases were subject to the consent of the Minister of Finance. The process would begin with submissions from the Resident Managers to the Education Department making a case for an increase in the grant. The Department would consider the submission and would then put a proposal to the Department of Finance. The two Departments would then consult and the Department of Finance would then come to a decision. It could refuse to sanction an increase, or sanction one, usually at a lower rate than the one sought by Education.

The Department of Finance was often sceptical as to whether the Resident Managers’ Association or the Congregations had put the full picture before the Department of Education. The issue may not have been a refusal by the Department of Finance to provide sufficient funds: it may well have been the case that their calculations and deliberations led to its settling on a lesser sum as being sufficient.

Changes to the capitation grant system over the years - Changes to method of payment

There was no increase between 1939 and 1944 in the amount of the grant, although the cost of living had risen significantly, which brought dissatisfaction with the grant scheme to a head and led to three financial reforms.3

(i) The most important of these concerned the termination of the ‘certified number’ requirement which had applied to the Department, but not the local authority, contribution. How the system operated is explained in the following Departmental minute: (see also Cussen, para 157) The practice of paying State Grant on an arbitrary number the ‘Certified Number’ in each School, and not on the number actually under detention or for which there was accommodation, in a school, began in the 1870s. State expenditure on Industrial schools became limited to a figure fixed by the Treasury from time to time. This system seems to have been originally intended to keep control over the number of committals generally and to regulate their distribution throughout the country and amongst the various competing communities and bodies.

At Independence, the system appears to have been taken over and continued without question. The aggregate of the certificates then on issue to the Schools in the 26 counties (6,644) was fixed as the maximum. In the course of a redistribution of certificates in 1939, it transpired that only 6,563 were actually on issue at that date, and the maximum was reduced to that figure. This number was an issue in 1944.

As a result of the certified number limitation system,4 the actual number of children under detention often exceeded the number chargeable to the State. However, in some cases schools refused to accept committals above the certified number. Instead, they accepted cases under the Public Assistance Acts which were not counted against them under the certified number. In any case, the certified number restriction was abolished by a Finance minute of 19th April 1944, which announced that capitation grant should be paid on all children committed to industrial schools up to the full number for which the schools had accommodation.

(ii) Until 1939, in respect of a child under six only the local authority’s contribution (not that of the Department) was paid and the local authority paid only about two-thirds of the contribution of that for a child over six. The thinking was that children under six should be dealt with under the Poor Law. However, the social outlook changed at the beginning of the Twentieth century and children under six were committed to industrial schools in increasing numbers. These children were accepted, effectively at less than half cost, by the Schools partly out of charity and partly so as to have a reserve of children who could be put on the grant immediately they turned six. However, in 1939, the Department started to pay a contribution of two thirds of the amount paid for an over-six. And, as from the date of Department of Finance minute of 1944 mentioned in para (i), the full amounts were paid by both the Department and local authority, irrespective of age.

(iii) The Department of Education submission state that, before-1944, the process for claiming the grants involved the Schools in furnishing a detailed account in respect of each child. After 1944, the State capitation grant for a full quarter was paid by the Department at the end of each quarter. This was based on the number of committed children under detention on the last day of the preceding quarter, after the Manager had submitted a list of the names and registered numbers of the children together with the name of the local authorities to which each child was chargeable.

Increases in the amount paid

Capitation grants were increased from time to time by the Department over the relevant period.

There was no increase in the capitation grant between April 1939 and July 1944. The rate was increased at two and three year intervals for the rest of the 1940s. It will be noted that there were significant increases in the (state and local authority) capitation grant from 19/- in 1946 to 27/- in 1951 in respect of Reformatory Schools and from 16/- to 24/- in respect of Industrial Schools. (The figures used here combine both the central and local government contributions.)

A substantial increase was also provided in the period 1951 and 1968, when the combined rate for Reformatory Schools increased from 27/- to 85/- and from 24/- to 82/- in respect of Industrial Schools. Strikingly, the capitation grant was then doubled in the following year to reach approx 171/- for Reformatory Schools and 165/- for Industrial Schools.

In the 1950s, there was a six-year gap between 1952 and 1958 when no increases were made and a further five-year interval between then and 1963. For the rest of that decade, increases occurred every one or two years. There was a three-year gap between 1969, when the grant was doubled, to 1972 when the grant was increased by a further £10.30 (roughly 200/-) in respect of Reformatory Schools and £9.90 (roughly 180/-) in respect of Industrial Schools. The figures in 1972 represent the changeover in currency. Thereafter in the 70s and 80s there were annual increases to meet cost of living increases and wage increases.

When increases were granted, the Department generally sent a circular to say that it was the Minister’s expectation that improvements in the care, diet and maintenance would be made, so there was no suggestion that increases were just to maintain the status quo.

Total expenditure out of public funds was: