Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for raising this matter. I am taking it on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Bruton, who is attending to other Government duties today.

As the Deputies will be aware, the Carline Learning Centre, Balgaddy, Lucan, County Dublin, was established as a community-based project in 1993 to assist young people who were not availing of mainstream education. Since then it has developed into a social care centre of learning which offers a combination of educational, emotional and social care programmes. The centre caters for young people aged 13 to 18 with a current enrolment of 27.

Education is provided in line with the primary school year calendar. Referrals to the centre are made by Tusla’s educational welfare service, Garda juvenile liaison officers and Tusla social work teams and care homes. Currently, 63 part-time hours per week are provided by the Department of Education and Skills at an annual estimated cost of €150,000. The Department also provides an annual non-pay grant of €170,000 to Dublin and Dún Laoghaire Education and Training Board, DDLETB, to meet the day-to-day running costs of the centre. In addition, the centre receives annual funding from Tusla. In 2017, Tusla provided €91,190 comprising an annual allocation of €60,000 plus additional funding of some €30,000 for that year.

In addition to the funding provided to the Carline learning centre, the Department of Education and Skills funds a range of national programmes catering for early school leavers, such as Youthreach, community training centres and youth encounter projects, which are represented in Dublin. The Department’s DEIS plan 2017 sets out the vision for education to more fully become a proven pathway to better opportunities for those in communities at risk of disadvantage and social exclusion. Action 88 of the plan provides for a review of current out-of-school provision to inform future policy in this area. This review is being carried out by a working group chaired by the Department of Education and Skills and includes representatives from Tusla and the education and training board sector.

With regard to capital funding for the Carline facility, the Department of Education and Skills has no record of an application for capital works from the centre and, consequently, it is not aware of the issues to which the Deputies refer. The Minister has asked that I inform Deputies that the Department is willing to consider an application for funding to address fire safety and health and safety issues at the centre. The Department has already been in touch with the DDLETB and it has agreed to contact the centre to assist its board in this matter. Once an application is received, it will be turned around as quickly as possible.

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