Vol. 473 No. 4
310 Ms Keogh asked the Minister for Education the reason Carlow Education Centre was omitted in the announcement of the development and upgrading of the Education Centre Network; if she will consider upgrading this centre, particularly in view of the fact that it has been in operation for a considerable period of time and is widely used as a resource centre. [25279/96]
As the Deputy will be aware I announced the development plan for the upgrading of the education centre network on 18 October last. The plan provides for 21 full-time and nine part-time centres, strategically located throughout the country.
In drawing up the development plan, account was taken of a number of factors, including: geographical spread, school/teacher population and location of education board regions.
While it was not possible under the above criteria to upgrade all part-time centres and study groups, I assure the Deputy that my Department's in-career development unit will be pleased to continue to support suitable in-career programmes and courses provided by the Carlow study group.
