Conservative-DUP deal: NI schools received £58m

The DUP and the Conservative Party signed the confidence-and-supply deal in June 2017

Stormont's Department of Education has received just over £58m since 2017 from the confidence-and-supply arrangement between the DUP and Conservatives.

The pact, agreed in June 2017, included a proposed extra £1bn in spending for Northern Ireland over two years.

The department has published an analysis of what was received and how it was spent.

With an annual budget of almost £2bn, education is one of the larger Stormont departments.

However, a number of recent studies have highlighted real-terms cuts and pressures faced by schools and other bodies in the education sector.

Last week, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said that Northern Ireland had faced the highest school spending cuts per pupil in the UK over the past decade.

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According to the Department of Education (DE), it received £58.4m in funding since 2017 as a result of the confidence-and-supply arrangement.

In the 2017-18 financial year, the department received £5m to meet education funding pressures.

The Department of Education says the funding helped to reduce cuts that might have otherwise been made

In 2018-19, £20m was spent on meeting similar pressures.

"It reduced the level of cuts that may have otherwise been required had this funding not been received," DE said.

A further £16.5m was received in both the 2018-19 and 2019-20 financial years, which stopped a number of schemes aimed at tackling deprivation being cut.

Some 25% of the total annual £25.5m Sure Start budget for both years was paid for, for example, along with half of the funding to maintain 31 nurture groups in primary schools.

Most of the £9m budget for extended schools programmes in 2018-19 and 2019-20 was also paid for with confidence-and-supply money.

A further £400,000 was received by DE for joint projects between education and health.

The DUP has said it is due to enter negotiations to renew the confidence-and-supply pact with the Conservatives, ahead of the planned Queen's Speech next month.

However, it is not clear what the outcome will be or how the arrangement could be affected by the ongoing Brexit deadlock.