Vol. 455 No. 8
196 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Education if she will give details of the replacement special school for the Youth Encounter Project, Dublin 1; the number of children it will cater for; the staff numbers; the annual expenditure available to it; and the comparative figures for the Youth Encounter Project. [12860/95]
The Youth Encounter Project to which the Deputy refers was a special education facility established to cater for up to 25 children from the north inner city area who had become alienated from the mainstream school system. The project was closed with effect from the end of the 1994/95 school year. At the time of closure, a total of 13 children were enrolled in the Project. The total funding allocation to the project in 1994 was £89,000.
The educational needs of the children in question are now being addressed by a range of alternative provisions.
The majority of the children who had attended the Youth Encounter Project have been enrolled in a new special school facility which has been established in co-operation with the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul at Henrietta Street, Dublin 1.
The project will initially cater for up to 12 children but it is expected that this number will increase as the project develops.
The new special school has been allocated two teaching staff. This represents a pupil teacher ratio of 8 to 1 which is similar to that which applied in the case of the Youth Encounter Project.
Like the Youth Encounter Project, the school will also have the full-time services of a social worker and a housekeeper. Also, like the Youth Encounter Project, the school will have access to secretarial and maintenance services. These latter services were already in place in the Henrietta Street complex.
Important additional services which had not previously been available, include an allocation of additional teaching hours to facilitate extra curricular activity and the provision of a part-time psychological service to the school.
As with the Youth Encounter Project, the salary costs of the teachers involved in the new school will be met directly by the Department of Education. The other support services referred to will be funded through an initial allocation of £50,000 to cover operational costs for the current school year.
