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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 7 Oct 2003

Vol. 571 No. 4

Written Answers. - School Staffing.

Joe Costello

Question:

257 Mr. Costello asked the Minister for Education and Science if his attention has been drawn to the cutbacks in prison education which have resulted in redundancies in the teaching staff and consequent loss of teaching services to prisons; if he will take steps to have the cutbacks reversed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22248/03]

My Department allocates teaching hours 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 have been allocated to the prison service for the current school year. The allocation to the service for the 2002-03 school year was 221.3 whole-time equivalent posts.

The allocation of teaching resources under the co-operation heading has to be managed within the overall resources 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 2003-04.
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