asked the Minister for Education if the new courses which she mentioned in her Dáil speech on 9 March 1988 for young school-leavers will only apply to those over the school-leaving age and not to 13 and 14 year-olds.
Written Answers. - School-Leavers' Courses.
299.
In the Dáil speech mentioned by the Deputy I referred to joint proposals made to Government by myself and the Minister for Labour for a special training initiative for young people who leave the school system without qualifications. The new initiative will be designed to meet the training needs of young people over the age of 15 who have completed compulsory schooling.
I referred in the same speech to the educational needs of disadvantaged groups and I outlined the measures I propose to take to make more effective educational provision for such groups.
It should be clearly understood, however, that the new courses referred to in the question will apply only to young people over school leaving age.