Vol. 520 No. 1
400 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Education and Science the new services or extension of existing services contained in the new national development plan funded by his Department which have commenced or will commence in the south Kildare constituency during 2000; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15256/00]
The national development plan includes provision for the following:
–Skills development – £1,360.48 million:
Continued funding is provided for skills development through the post-graduate conversion courses, certificate and diploma courses, apprenticeship and tourism training in the technology sector and funding for the undergraduate skills fund.
–Social inclusion – £441.3 million:
This includes funding for early childhood education, early literacy initiative, adult literacy initiative, school completion initiative and the third level access fund. Funding is guaranteed at existing levels for the school guidance service, with provision for programme development, and Travellers education and refugees education support.
–Lifelong learning – £1,085 million:
The funding for the lifelong learning measures in the education sector provides for the back-to-education initiative, including VTOS, Youthreach and post leaving certificate courses, further education supports, including guidance and counselling, and the modern languages initiative.
–Quality improvement – £126 million:
The above includes provision for the in-career development of primary and post-primary teachers, quality assurance in the third level system, including training of trainers, the national qualifications system and certification.
–Equal opportunities – £19.6 million:
Provision is being made under the national development plan for three specific elements, the educational disadvantage measure, equal opportunities promotion and monitoring and the provision of childcare support for participants in programmes within the education sector.
–Youth services – £165.8 million:
The above includes funding to facilitate the continuation of the existing range of youth work services under the aegis of this Department.
–Research, technological, development and innovation – £550 million:
This investment which builds on the current initiatives to improve R&D capability in third level institutions is the largest ever targeted investment in favour of R&D in education.
