The education minister insists £100,000 shaved from budgets across the island’s primary schools do not amount to cuts.

At Tuesday’s House of Keys sitting, Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK Jason Moorhouse asked Minister for Education, Sport and Culture Daphne Caine whether funding provided to her department's schools has been adjusted since the start of the financial year.

The Department for Education, Sport and Culture (DESC) was forecast to overspend by around £1m this financial year. This is the result of income being below expectation and increased teacher pay awards.

Mrs Caine’s department was asked to reduce that overspend to meet this year’s budget and revealed £100,000 was saved from contributions made by 28 of the 32 primary schools and the rest from other areas of the department.

In revealing that overspend has been mitigated, she said: ‘In total, across the 32 primary schools in the island, £100,000 was found which represents 0.3% of the schools budget.

‘It is not a cut. It is more of a redistribution of funds from where savings could be made or where money has been unspent. The remaining savings have come from other areas of the department.’

Mrs Caine also told MHKs no contributions were made by the island’s secondary schools but did not expand further on why that was.

DESC was one of four departments forecast to overspend, alongside the Department for Enterprise, Department of Health and Social Care and the Department of Infrastructure.

When asked by Ramsey MHK Lawrie Hooper if the savings impacted on the service offered to primary school pupils, Mrs Caine said there was no significant impact as a result of the savings made.