Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 17 Apr 1997

Vol. 477 No. 7

Written Answers. - EU Funding

Mary O'Rourke

Ceist:

112 Mrs. O'Rourke asked the Minister for Education the programmes for which she has not drawn down the available EU funding under equal opportunities and various subheadings therein; if she will name each subheading, the money available which has not been obtained and the objectives of this measure; the amount of money available, the amount not drawn down and the objectives of the measure in respect of teachers' centre; the name of each subheading, the money available which has not been obtained and the objectives of the measure in respect of the vocational sector, particularly those offering post-leaving certificate courses; and the reason for not drawing down all of these financial resources, particularly in view of the fact that pilot initiatives carried out under these measures with EU funding would serve as valuable prototypes for mainstream activities. [10305/97]

Minister for Education (Ms Bhreathnach)

The programmes referred to by the Deputy are aided by the European Structural Funds under the Operational Programme for Human Resources Development. An indicative amount of aid per annum and a total allocation over the period 1994-99 is designated for each measure included in the Operational Programme.

Where the target level of expenditure on any measure in the education sector was not reached to warrant the drawdown of the maximum approved aid level for a particular year, the monitoring committee to date, has approved the redistribution of the unspent aid within the same measure over the remaining years of the programme and a revised financial plan for the measure has been agreed by the European Commission.

The current financial plan for the Operational Programme was approved by the monitoring committee in October 1996. The final claims for aid from the European Social Fund for 1996, which are being compiled in my Department at present, will be measured against the maximum level of aid approved in respect of 1996 under the revised financial plan.

With regard to the programme in question, the current position is as follows

Equal Opportunities consists of a range of actions aimed at combatting gender stereotyping and the promotion of equal opportunities. Actions under this measure are grouped under three main headings: curricular interventions, support for parents and, especially, mothers of preschool children wishing to participate in education. Support for voluntary or community women's education groups.

In approving the revised financial plan for the measure in October 1996 the monitoring committee agreed that £2.05 million of the ESF aid allocation would be allocated over the period 1997 to 1999 to support child care provision for participants on the VTOS and Youthreach programmes, £600,000 would be allocated for grants to voluntary women's groups and the remaining sum would continue to support curriculum interventions.

Under the current financial plan for the measure, the drawdown of aid for 1996 will be approximately £20,000 less than anticipated. The monitoring committee its being asked, at is meeting on 22 April 1996 to approve the re-allocation of this underspend to the promotion of equal opportunities in 1998.

The primary objectives of the Education Centres which are funded under the Vocational Training Infrastructure measure are: to provide a centre for the dissemination of knowledge and information to all teachers; to promote and facilitate the in-career development of teachers; to promote and encourage research and experimental projects in the field of education.

Under the vocational training infrastructure measure, approximately £104 million has been allocated from the European Regional Development Fund in respect of second level and third level capital projects. The total cost of the agreed programme is in the region of £182 million. A sum of £7.5 million of the European Regional Development Fund aid has been designated for the development and upgrading of education centres. It is proposed to establish-upgrade 21 education centres, each with its own catchment area.

I announced a revised schedule for the implementation of the programme of development of the education centres on 18 October, 1996. My Department is seeking the approval of the monitoring committee to re-allocate aid in the region of £1.6 million from 1996 to 1998 on the basis of the revised implementation schedule.

The Vocational Preparation and Training programme is provided at two levels: VPT-1, the leaving certificate vocational programme and the leaving certificate applied programme; VPT-2, more commonly known as post-leaving certificate courses.

An underspend of EU aid occured in this measure in 1995 due primarily to a temporary decrease in the number of trainees entering VPT arising from the expansion of the transition year option in second level schools. This underspend was re-allocated to the measure for 1997. Preliminary indications are that expenditure in 1996 under this measure was on target.