I see the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is on the late shift tonight. I do not see the Minister with responsibility for this area in the House. He must be fast-tracking his way back to Limerick.
I am glad of the opportunity to bring this matter to the attention of the House. The Minister of State will be aware from correspondence with me on this issue that there is an urgent need for the Department of Education and Science to commit additional resources to the Tallaght Travellers' Youth Service so that it can radically extend its literacy programme for Travellers in the Tallaght area.
For the past five years the service has asked the Department to extend the number of teaching hours available to local Travellers. It provides 1,050 teaching hours in the Tallaght area for local Travellers. The service believes it is essential the number of teaching hours for its literacy programme be extended to 1,900 hours. The growing demand for literacy classes reflects the widespread need within the Traveller community for this service.
There are about 250 Traveller families in the Tallaght area and this number has almost doubled in the past ten years. While the demand for Traveller education and, specifically, literacy programmes such as I have described has increased dramatically in this time, we have not seen an increase in the number of educational services available to the Traveller community.
The effect of the proposal from the Tallaght Travellers' Youth Service would be to provide two additional teaching posts devoted solely to the enhancement of literacy skills for local Travellers. It should not be forgotten that, under the national development plan, a huge sum of money has been set aside for improving literacy standards throughout the country. It has been highlighted repeatedly that Travellers are a key group in terms of poverty and improving literacy and educational skills.
The Tallaght Travellers' Youth Service does not understand why its proposal to extend the literacy service to Travellers has fallen on deaf ears within the Department of Education and Science for the past five years. This is not good enough and I challenge the Minister of State to explain how a group like this, which provides an essential service, should have to wait for funding when the Government has recognised the crucial work taking place within the community.
I understand that funding for a special project such as this falls within the remit of the youth affairs section of the Department of Education and Science. In the course of his reply, I would like the Minister present to state how much additional money exists within the special projects for youth scheme, which is a specific subhead within the Department. The Minister of State has made much of his commitment to providing funds for literacy programmes. Why has this project has not received a favourable response from the Department to date?