About Us

History & Origin of the FSSU

School finances and accounting have become a more complex matter with schools handling a variety of funds apart from per capita grants. While schools in the free education scheme may not charge fees, other sources of finance have evolved over the years in the form of voluntary donations from parents and other types of fund-raising. Fee charging schools also receive State funding.

Section 18 of the Education Act 1998 provides that a school Board of Management shall keep accounts of all income and expenditure, and obliges the Board to ensure that the accounts are audited or certified in accordance with best accounting practice.

This section also provides that the Board must make the accounts relating to State and other funding available for inspection by the Minister and parents of students in that school.
To fulfil this function, the Financial Support Services Unit (FSSU) was set up by the Department of Education and Skills (DES) under Circular M36-05, in September 2004 under the aegis of the JMB. The Unit is fully funded by the DES and was given responsibility for assisting all schools in the voluntary sector to meet their responsibilities for financial accountability and transparency.

The services of the Unit were expanded to include the primary sector from September 2017 (Circular 60/2017) and schools in the Community and Comprehensive sector from January 2018 (Circular 002/2018).

Our Mission Statement

“The Financial Support Services Unit (FSSU) is a support mechanism for the managerial authorities in the voluntary school sector which assists them in complying with the provisions of the Education Act 1998 in terms of transparency, accountability and financial responsibility for State and other funding’