John Perry
Question:392 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if the staffing grant will be granted to the Village Montessori school, Bunninadden, County Sligo; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6306/03]
Written Answers - Grant Payments.
I can inform the Deputy that the group in question submitted a staffing grant application to the child care directorate in March 2002. All applications are assessed initially against the programme criteria by Area Development Management Limited and are examined by the programme appraisal committee, chaired by my Department, which makes a funding recommendation to me. Support towards staffing costs is only made available to community based projects which can show that they address disadvantage and assist parents who are in employment, education or training. On the basis of the information available to it in relation to this project, the programme appraisal committee did not recommend funding of this project because it did not rate highly under the criteria in terms of tackling social disadvantage. It is open to the group to appeal my decision. It should submit any new or additional information in support of its application to the child care directorate in my Department for re-assessment.