John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her positive response to this issue. She indicated the various sources of funding made available to the Carline centre. and she is absolutely correct. The vast majority of that funding, however, goes on one thing only, namely, staff wages. Very little funding is left to run such a facility. The positive response and willingness to deal with requests for capital funding to address some of the serious outstanding issues in the school are very welcome.

I concur with my colleague and place on record my appreciation for all who are involved in the Carline learning centre, including the volunteers, members of the board and especially the staff. The outcomes are very successful. I indicated that at any given point in time approximately 50 people will be participating in programmes to complete the junior certificate. The outcome is that 50% of participants return to mainstream education. For those who have entered the centre with the complex issues that we identified at the start of the debate, those outcomes are very positive.

I thank the Minister of State and ask her to convey to the Minister that we are very happy with the response that the Department is prepared to consider the request for capital funding and that the Minister of State is prepared to do so with a degree of urgency.

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