As the primary school year draws to a close, the management body has said an urgent increase in State financial support for primary schools is needed so that they can meet basic running costs.
The CPSMA carried out a review of the accounts of 90 schools which showed that between 2019 and 2024 school costs increased by between 60% and 70%. It says insurance costs have increased by up to a third, cleaning is up by around 80% and utilities have risen by 49%.
Meanwhile, the capitation rate for primary schools - at €200 per pupil per year - is the same as that paid in 2008.
School capitation was cut in 2009, and recent annual Government Budgets have focused on restoring it to 2008 levels.
The Department of Education has pointed to the once-off cost-of-living payments that have been made to schools this year.
At primary level they amounted to an additional €36 per pupil according to the CPSMA. The department also points to the fact that capitation for primary schools will increase to €224 next year.
But the body that represents the bulk of the country's primary schools, its Catholic primary schools, is concerned that next year’s increase is nowhere near enough.
"If it hadn’t been for [this year’s once-off payments] schools would be underwater now," CPSMA General Secretary Seamus Mulconry said.
The CPSMA has said the immediate financial pressure that many schools are facing now needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.
"We have never received as many queries about school finance as we have this year, and we have never made as many representations. It is unprecedented; record numbers of schools are asking us to request the [Department of Education] for financial assistance," Mr Mulconry said.
"What is emerging is a massive increase in costs between 2019 and 2024. While these 90 schools are not a representative sample, I think they are pretty indicative of what is going on."
'Schools unable to meet their running costs'
Four primary schools in Co Louth spoke about their struggle to make ends meet.
They are among a network of 23 schools across the county who say they are facing serious financial problems.
"Schools are unable to meet their running costs. The only way we can do it is with the support of the wider school community and contributions from parents", said Principal of Scoil Aonghusa in Drogheda, Edel Ní Bhroin.
The principal of this gaelscoil has gathered information across 23 Louth primary schools in her local network. She says all are facing unprecedented financial challenges due to basic costs that have risen.
"Schools are under real financial difficulty. Schools that never before ran a deficit are now going into debt and that is very worrying".
St Joseph’s CBS is next door to Scoil Aonghusa. In this DEIS school, a huge plastic bag filled with empty plastic bottles sits in a corner, waiting to be exchanged for cash via the deposit return scheme.
"This is one of the ways we are funding our school at the moment, one of the many ways," Principal Sarah Bradley said.
"Our amazing children, and their families, are bringing in plastic bottles to help fund their education, and I think this is a really sad state of affairs."
What she finds most frustrating about this financial struggle is that "you can’t plan and you are constantly having to say 'no’ to educational opportunities that three years ago weren’t a consideration; ‘Can we afford to hire that bus? Can we afford to go to that football match? Can we do the things that we used to take for granted".
These four Louth schools all itemise cleaning costs that have "skyrocketed", insurance costs that have risen by up to a third, lighting, heating, bin and water charges, toilet roll, soap.
"The list goes on and on and what annoys me is that there is so little if anything left for learning and teaching, for resources for children with special needs, resources for children in special classes," the principal of Naomh Feighín NS, Bryan Collins, said.
He has been a school principal for 29 years. "We are the canaries in the coalmine, a decade ago we were warning about the prospect of teacher shortages, now we are saying that schools are coming to the end of the line [financially], that schools are going to be in serious trouble and we are trying to highlight this as best we can."
Eileen Pike is the principal of Tullyallen National School, which is an unusually large rural school catering for more than 400 pupils.
"We have probably spent most of our capitation this year on insurance and cleaning," she said.
"This is a very big struggle for us. The cost of cleaning has just skyrocketed, even the cost of cleaning supplies. It is just impossible at the moment."
These four Louth principals represent very different kinds of schools, smaller and large, rural and urban, one DEIS and one gaelscoil.
They and the CPSMA say the problems they are facing are shared by primary schools across the country.
They have called for systemic change to how primary schools are funded; they point to the fact that post-primary school capitation is significantly higher. But they also say schools need immediate financial support to bail them out now.
What will happen if this support does not come? There is talk of primary schools being forced to close their doors. Seamus Mulconry says schools "will do everything in their power not to" have to close.
He said schools will be obliged to turn to parents - that is, the schools that can.
"If there isn’t real and substantial investment by Government we are going to see parents on the hook for all of these costs and charges," Mr Mulconry said.
