Seán Crowe
Question:557 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of teaching posts in prisons provided through the vocational educational committees. [20327/03]
Written Answers. - Education in Prisons.
Seán Crowe
Question:558 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of teaching posts in prisons provided through the vocational educational committees in each prison. [20328/03]
Seán Crowe
Question:559 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for Education and Science if there have been recent cutbacks in the amount of funding made available by his Department for education in prisons. [20329/03]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 557 to 559, inclusive, together.
My Department allocates teaching resources to vocational education committees to support the delivery of education programmes in the prison system. Such allocations are made under the heading of Co-operation Hours with other Institutions.
A total of 214.24 whole-time equivalent teaching posts has been allocated to this service for the 2003-04 school year. The allocation to the service for the 2002-03 school year was 221.3 whole-time equivalent teacher posts.
The allocation of teaching resources under the co-operation heading has to be managed within the overall teaching resource available to my Department and in the context of the cap on public sector numbers generally. This inevitably requires prioritisation in the utilisation of available resources. In this context, I am satisfied that the very small reduction in the allocation to the Prison Service is not unreasonable and I understand that arrangements have been made within the service to maintain a satisfactory level of programme delivery for the coming year. A list of the allocations granted to vocational education committees in respect of individual prisons is being prepared and will be forwarded to the Deputy as soon as possible.