Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have one last question for SOLAS. Rather than doing it off the top of his head, I ask Mr. O'Toole to send us a note on the status of the funding for the new ETB second level school in Portlaoise regarding site identification. The new Dunamase school has opened on a temporary site. I ask Mr. O'Toole to send an update in writing to the committee on the status of that next week.

Pages 70 and 71 of the accounts have the title, Direct Provision of Funding (Further Education Grants) - Breakdown of Grants by Programme as Reported by the Education and Training Boards. I ask Mr. O'Toole to explain the rationale; he may need to send me something on the criteria. I look at the post-leaving certificate courses. Kilkenny and Carlow ETB got €245,000 for PLC courses, but Laois and Offaly, an ETB of the same size, only got €92,000. If I move across the column and look at Youthreach, Kilkenny and Carlow ETB only drew down €911,000 for Youthreach, whereas Laois and Offaly ETB drew down €2.439 million. They are vastly different figures for areas of similar populations and similar urban-rural breakdown. It is not just those and I ask Mr. O'Toole to explain the rationale for deciding which ETBs get big money for PLCs and which get big money for Youthreach.