Vol. 446 No. 1
126 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Education the total amount of EU funding secured by her Department for 1994 for education and training projects; and if she will make a statement on the main areas in which this is being utilised. [1673/94]
While the overall expenditure allocation for Department of Education programmes in the Community Support Framework for the period 1994-99 has been agreed and there is agreement in principle on the measures which will be aided, the negotiations with the European Commission on the aid allocations for individual measures will be finalised in the Operational Programmes for Human Resources and for Industrial Development. As negotiations on the Operational Programme for Human Resources are currently being finalised, I trust the Deputy will understand if I do not specify the precise amount of EU funding which will be available to my Department for 1994.
Funding for the education sector will cover a range of measures including: early intervention measures aimed at prevention of early school leaving; a programme of integrated education, training and work experience for early school leavers and travellers; a vocational training opportunity scheme for long term unemployed over 21 years of age; a restructuring of the existing vocational preparation and training programme; continued provision of apprentice level training jointly with FÁS and of training jointly with CERT at craft and managerial level for the hotel, catering and tourism industry; the continuation of existing measures under the middle level technician and higher technical and business skills measures in the regional technical colleges and the Dublin Institute of Technology; a restructuring of the advanced technical skills programme in the higher education sector; provision for research training and enterprise development; a major training of trainers initiative at all levels of education; a technical assistance programme for independent certification of vocational education and training within the education system and support for infrastructural development and support for infrastructural development at second and third level including the provision of teachers' centres for inservice training of staff at the first and second levels of the system.
