Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The Carline Learning Centre in Lucan, County Dublin, has been providing a unique educational social care and psychological service to young people for more than 25 years. It works with young people who, for a variety of reasons, are no longer able to remain in mainstream schools. They are often young people with complex needs and issues in their families or in their communities. It provides them with a stable learning environment, first, to try to reintegrate them into mainstream school but also to give them real opportunities in life. The centre has an enormous success rate. In the past year, 17 young people who entered the school completed the junior certificate examination, and 53% of the young people who go through its doors are reintegrated back into education.

The centre's funding situation is precarious but the central problem the three Deputies from the constituency want to raise today is that it does not have access to capital funding. Currently, it has an urgent capital funding need to bring the building up to health and safety standards, and we are urging the Minister and his Department to intervene. I got a reply from the senior Minister recently to a parliamentary question. It was disappointing that he described this service as out-of-school provision. This is a form of school for young people who desperately need the support. The building they are in should meet health and safety standards and we are asking the Minister to work with us to try to resolve the current funding difficulties.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Ó Broin has set out clearly the role of the Carline Learning Centre, which we had the opportunity to visit last week. I reiterate that the children who are attending the centre, of whom there are approximately 50 at any given time, are dealing with a range of issues. The reality is that without this facility, they would be excluded from education. The centre's outcomes are very successful. As Deputy Ó Broin indicated, having done the junior certificate, more than half of these children return to mainstream education. The Deputy pointed out clearly that there is an issue regarding the condition of the physical structure of the building and, while we have received a reply, the various funders are washing their hands of it because it is funded in an unusual manner. There are probably four primary funders, including the education and training board, the local drugs task force, Tusla and the Department.

The primary concern is for the children, who range in age from 13 to 17. There is an obligation on the State to ensure they receive an education. Most of those children are obliged to attend an educational facility. They are not of an age where they can leave that environment, yet no one is addressing the issue of providing the capital funding required. Most of the funding the centre gets goes on current expenditure and staff wages. The challenge is that the current building is not fit for purpose and without the Minister taking a proactive role and addressing this issue, the future of this institution is of concern to us.

Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I concur with my follow Dublin Mid-West Deputies. This is a unique project that has been in operation for 25 years in the Clondalkin-Lucan area. I have first-hand knowledge of it. My niece attended the Carline project. She will not mind me saying this because I have said it to her already but she dropped out of school. She went to the Carline project, completed the leaving certificate this year and is now doing a full-time course. She says that if it had not been for the Carline project, she probably would have taken a different road education-wise. I can say that in respect of the many young people who use the facility. It is a great facility that prevents young people taking a different road from the one they should take. It is imperative that this project is properly funded.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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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.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State and the Minister for the very positive answer. In her previous career, the Minister of State was aware of the challenges faced by teachers in schools. Having met some of the teachers in the Carline learning centre, I am aware that they go beyond what would normally be expected of teachers to ensure that the very vulnerable young people with whom they work get the best quality education. They also have a very impressive voluntary board that is putting a considerable amount of time into the development of the centre to ensure its governance and other affairs are in order. If we are able to get this application, on which we will communicate with the school as a matter of urgency, into the education and training board as soon as possible, we would hope the Department and the Minister of State, through her good offices, would be willing to assist in expediting it as quickly as possible. Clearly we cannot have a scenario where young people in an educational institution are at risk due to a lack of adequate capital funding. It is not a large amount of money. I thank the Minister of State for the encouraging response. We will stay in touch with the Minister of State over the coming weeks.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Minister of State has given a positive response. It is safe to say that the building complex is relatively old. Staff at the centre have indicated it needs refurbishment, particularly for health and safety reasons. As Deputy Ó Broin noted, the amount of funding involved is small when one considers the services the centre has provided to young people who have availed of its programmes over the past 25 years. If it was not for this service, who knows where those young people would have ended up? The staff and founders of the project have guided young people in a different and safer direction for educational purposes and put them on the right road in their own lives and those of their families. I hope the centre will secure the funding it needs to be a viable project for the future.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I will raise this issue with the Minister. I am glad the Deputies are happy with the response. I hope progress will be made quickly.