Dan Boyle
Question:267 Mr. Boyle asked the Minister for Education and Science the moneys which have been expended in his Department by area and projects to date under the RAPID and CLÁR programmes. [25853/02]
Written Answers. - Departmental Programmes.
The RAPID programme is designed to harness the opportunities and resources of the national development plan through the prioritisation of investment to the 45 most deprived communities in the country (25 urban areas and 20 provincial towns). To date, I have allocated more than €1.8 million in respect of RAPID project proposals submitted to my Department. This figure encompasses 16 RAPID proposals that I have approved, in whole or in part, relating to a number of areas including third level access, education guidance counselling, resource teachers and teaching hours as well as capital refurbishment and extension projects. These proposals are located in a number of the areas identified as disadvantaged under the RAPID programme in parts of Dublin, Cork, and Limerick. I have arranged for a list of these projects to be forwarded separately to the Deputy.
I have also recently allocated more than €5 million to the Dublin City, County Dublin, Dún Laoghaire, Cork City, Louth and Limerick City Vocational Education Committees under the new back to education initiative, BTEI, which will provide important second chance education opportunities in these communities. A proportion of these block allocations will facilitate some funding of RAPID area applications. Decisions on allocations to individual projects within these amounts are matters for individual vocational education committees. In addition, I recently appointed 34 community education facilitators as a new nationwide service operating under the vocational education committees, who will be an important resource for RAPID areas within their remits.
The CLÁR programme complements the RAPID programme by concentrating resources on the 16 most disadvantaged rural areas. To date I have allocated €10,000 to Líonra, the regional higher education network of the BMW region, for a scoping study relating to the Ballinafad Field Study Centre. In addition, my Department is engaged in ongoing discussions with the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, which is the lead department with responsibility for the co-ordination of the CLÁR programme, with a view to clarifying the priority education needs of the rural areas involved. When the priority needs of the areas involved have been identified, I will then consider how my Department can most effectively address them.