Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I have raised this matter to ensure that Dublin Adult Learning Centre receives adequate funding to fulfil its mission of providing literacy and basic education to adults in Dublin's inner city.

The ethos of the Dublin Adult Learning Centre is quite unique in that it adopts a community-based, learner-centred, creative and holistic approach which is respectful of the adult status of the learner. The centre caters for 660 students per year mostly from the Dublin 1, 3, 7 and 9 postal districts but also from other parts of the city as it is centrally located on bus routes. Almost half of the students are unemployed with the other 50% being employed often in low-paid jobs but finding it difficult to progress in employment because of their literacy and numeracy problems. For the majority of learners in the centre, the formal education system has completely failed them. A total of 47% of the centre's students have just primary school education, while a further 13% have attained junior certificate. The centre provides one to one tutoring through its highly trained volunteers. This is very important for people who are embarrassed by their low level of education and lack of basic numeracy and literacy skills. It also provides the opportunity for students to sit junior certificate, leaving certificate and FETAC levels three, four and five accredited courses. The majority of students who graduate from the centre's courses go on to further education and many find permanent sustainable employment.

Education is indeed the key to unlock the potential of participants, enabling them to pursue employment opportunities. It also restores dignity to the participants and ensures they can develop as full and active citizens in society. As one participant pointed out at their pre-budget submission yesterday, learning to read empowered him to exercise one of the most basic yet important civil rights, the right to vote. Every student in the centre can tell his or her own story as to how participating in a course in the centre helped to transform their lives.

The Dublin Adult Learning Centre works with a number of agencies throughout the city. The centre runs a number of programmes to support its core literacy and numeracy functions, including volunteer tutor training as the teaching in the centre is done mainly through the work of voluntary tutors, a crèche, a resource room and outreach activities. Many people volunteer their time, education and skills to give others the same opportunity.

The Dublin Adult Learning Centre, like many community education programmes, has been funded to date from a variety of sources. Two thirds of its funding comes from the Department of Social Protection and the remaining one third comes from FÁS, the Department of Social Protection and from Pobal. For the past 14 years, the centre received funding from FÁS and the Department of Social Welfare, which represented 19% of the overall budget. FÁS has now ceased to provide core funding and the Department of Social Protection funding has been transferred into activation funds which is difficult for the centre to access. The net impact is that the centre has already suffered a loss of almost one fifth of its income before the budget. It cannot take any further cuts.

I ask the Minister to make funding available to compensate for the loss of the FÁS and the Department of Social Protection funds. It makes no sense to cut funding for an agency that provides such essential education services during a recession with the highest unemployment in the history of the State. Funding for the centre is an investment in our citizens. It is clear from the history of the Dublin Adult Learning Centre that this investment will pay dividends in the future.

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