Vol. 565 No. 3
176 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of applications for the adult literacy programme; the funding his Department provides for the programme; the number of participants on the programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10687/03]
The adult literacy services are delivered locally by the vocational education committees with funding provided by my Department. The number of literacy students in VEC literacy schemes is currently of the order of 25,000 and expenditure is €15.6 million. As the service is administered locally, my Department would not know the number of applications to join schemes that have been received by vocational education committees. In addition, several literacy initiatives have been targeted at groups with particular literacy needs, such as programmes for deaf people and in literacy in the workplace.
The adult literacy service is being expanded as resources become available. A sum of €93.5 million was committed to the service in the National Development Plan 2000-2006, with a target of reaching 113,000 clients.
