Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 10 July 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Invest in Irish Job Scheme: Discussion.

2:45 pm

Ms Loretta Glucksman:

In the early 1990s we became aware of the need for integrated education and that many parents yearned for the ability to establish schools where their kids could learn and play together. We got donors from the States that were interested and schools were established. At the start there may have been a handful of kids and two or three schools but today there are thousands of kids being educated this way. Money was raised philanthropically, mostly in the States but really all over the world, to make that happen. The integrated education movement has been a great success and Baroness May Blood has been the force behind it for many years. It was not rocket science. They had a good idea but needed the money, we raised the money and money flowed to them. Their track record has been astounding.

We back, in addition to my colleagues here, so many others. There is a great programme called No Mind Left Behind where we will get the money for children that need money. I have not written all the programmes down, but the model used is the same.