James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Just to clarify something for Senator Burke, the Senator has made these points on numerous occasions about the particular facility he mentioned. Where people who have fallen out of school are being encouraged back into an educational setting using volunteers, he asks why the schools are getting the capitation fees when these children are not attending school, and why that money cannot be transferred over to support organisations such as this in providing services. He has mentioned the fact that the funding from the Christian Brothers cannot be guaranteed for the future and they have more or less told him they cannot do it again next year. The Senator asked specifically whether my Department would come on board to support the position. We certainly would do so. We would be very happy to approach the Department of Education and Skills in the context of the school completion programmes that we run and see how we can maximise funding for that, particularly where the school is being funded for work it does not have to do because these children are not attending.