A Fine Gael TD says the State could not afford to scrap fee paying schools. Mary Mitchell-O'Connor says the state would not be able to fund all 55 fee paying schools if they became public.

It comes following reports in the Irish Independent this morning that one in four private schools have begun talks with the Department of Education about dropping fees because of a drop in enrolment numbers and cuts to teacher numbers.

The Irish Independent says that from September, the Department will provide a teacher for every 23 pupils in a fee-paying school - compared with a ratio of 19:1 for schools in the free education sector.

There are also concerns that fee-paying schools will be hit again in the 2014 academic year when Education Minister Ruairi Quinn announces details of his budget in October.

An audit on fee-paying schools published earlier this year showed big differences in fee-paying schools.

At one end of the scale a large school had a discretionary spend of €4.7 million per year, while at the other end a relatively small private school had €112,000.

Deputy Mitchell-O'Connor told Breakfast here on Newstalk that it is simply not practical to suggest scrapping fee paying schools altogether and placing the burden on the State.