Beverley Flynn (Mayo, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate. Between 40 and 50 tutors employed by Mayo VEC were informed last week that the back to education and literacy courses they were running would be suspended at the end of the month and the end of the week, respectively, due to an increase in administration costs, which meant that money ran out. This affects 50 tutors, 700 literacy students and 1,600 back to education initiative students who are doing a FETAC level 2 course in child care and health care support. This is disappointing news, with serious consequences for everybody involved, particularly they were given short notice towards the end of the year.

Eight weeks of the courses, which would have taken students up to Christmas, have been suspended and it is planned that they will recommence at the start of next year. However, the loss of eight weeks will have serious implications for the timing and scheduling of the course and the awarding of qualifications.

I hope the Minister of State can shed light on this issue. The funding for these courses amounts to €500,000 in 2005. Mayo was the first county to initiate the national adult literacy programme and the service is well regarding by the Department and throughout the country. Many other counties have followed the example of the excellent literacy programme content provided by Mayo VEC. Excellent results have been achieved, hence the popularity of the programme within the country, which has addressed what was a hidden condition until recent years.

It is a brave step for a person who leaves school without the necessary reading and writing skills to take up the challenge of a literacy course. They are an essentially vulnerable group. Why are they being targeted? Is it because it is highly unlikely a person on a literacy course will step forward as a spokesperson to state this situation is completely unacceptable and money should be put in place? These people are trying to achieve competence in the area of literacy and they are particularly vulnerable. It is a cynical exercise to target this course.

I refer to the back to education initiative, which concentrates mainly on unemployed people. However, many of them have paid for the course in full out of their own pockets in the expectation of gaining a qualification next May. The certificates under the FETAC level 2 programme are due to be presented in May 2006 and the scheduling of the course facilitates job applications for child care and health care support vacancies. Given the sudden suspension of the final eight weeks of the course this year, what implication will that have for the scheduling of the course? Will the eight weeks be added on at the end? How will this affect the new courses, which are due to commence in 2006?

Why was there no forward planning? Everybody must have recognised administrative costs would increase towards the end of the year. Why was that not anticipated? If it was anticipated, were additional resources requested from the Department? What was its response?

The people affected comprise vulnerable groups in our society. It is a shame that they have been hit. It is incumbent on me, therefore, as a public representative for County Mayo to speak on behalf of these silent voices on this issue. Both students and tutors are affected. I call on the Minister to make available as a matter of urgency the funding required to enable the County Mayo VEC to complete the adult literacy and BTEI programmes without interruption and to reassure the participants that all such courses will be completed on schedule.

See this speech in context