David Stanton
Ceist:234 Mr. Stanton asked the Minister for Education and Science the way in which his Department is involved in the RAPID programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26815/02]
Written Answers. - RAPID Programme.
RAPID proposals relevant to education are submitted by Area Development Management Limited in the first instance to the social inclusion unit of my Department, to which I have assigned responsibility for co-ordinating the RAPID programme in my Department. When received in the Department, the project proposals are disseminated to the relevant line section who assess them, as a matter of priority, and make every effort to frontload and prioritise national development plan resources for those projects that are consistent with my Department's strategies to tackle educational disadvantage and promote social inclusion. As part of this process, briefings on RAPID have been organised for officials in the various line sections of the Department.
My officials in the social inclusion unit liaise on an ongoing basis with local RAPID co-ordinators or project sponsors who have queries about specific projects or the type of programmes funded by my Department. The social inclusion unit is also responsible for producing progress reports on RAPID for ADM on a bi-monthly basis. The assistant secretary responsible for the social inclusion division represents the Department on the RAPID national monitoring committee.
The current position in my Department in respect of the RAPID programme is that I have allocated in excess of €1.8 million in respect of project proposals that were submitted from the various area implementation teams. This figure encompasses 17 RAPID proposals that I have approved, in whole or in part, relating to a number of areas including third level access, adult and community education, education guidance counselling, resource teachers, teaching hours as well as capital refurbishment or extension projects. I have also recently allocated more than €5 million to vocational education committees in Dublin City, Dublin County, Dún Laoghaire, Cork City, Louth and Limerick City Vocational Education Committees under the new back to education initiative, BTEI, which will provide important second chance education opportunities in these communities. A proportion of these block allocations will facilitate some funding of RAPID area applications. Decisions on allocations to individual projects within these amounts are a matter for individual vocational education committees. In addition, I recently appointed 34 community education facilitators as a new nationwide service operating under the vocational education committees who will be an important resource for RAPID areas within their remits.