Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 February 2004
139 Mr. Carey asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will investigate the difficulties being experienced by a school (details supplied) in Dublin 11, in accessing funds from his Department to develop and implement its highly successful ICT programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5414/04]
View answerUnder my Department's three year programme — Blueprint for the Future of ICT in Irish Education — capital grants were provided to primary and post-primary schools in the period 2001-03 to support the development of schools' information and communications technology infrastructure. In 2001 and 2002, ICT grants of €13,846 and €9,732 were provided to the school mentioned by the Deputy, while payment for advisory and technical training was provided under the auspices of the National Centre for Technology in Education, NCTE.
Due to budget constraints in 2003, it was necessary to adopt a more targeted approach to funding schools' ICT in that year and, accordingly, capital grants were provided to those schools which had vouched for expenditure in excess of 75% of funding received from my Department. The position of schools which did not receive a 2003 ICT grant, including the school referred to by the Deputy, will be considered by my Department in the light of available resources in 2004 and expenditure returns provided by the relevant schools to my Department.
