Síle de Valera (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Ross for raising this matter on the Adjournment and for affording me the opportunity to clarify the position of my Department concerning the school of music at the Waterford Institute of Technology.

The WIT has quite a large music school with approximately 30 staff providing tuition to over 800 students, mainly at junior levels but with a small third level component. The institute informed my Department earlier this year that the costs of providing this tuition had risen considerably in recent years, substantially contributed to by the improved terms and conditions of part-time staff following the part-time work Act 2001. WIT indicated that it was running its music programme at a substantial loss as the level of fees was not meeting the costs now involved and it inquired as to the availability of specific additional funding for this purpose.

The annual budget for each institute of technology is currently allocated on the basis of its total pay and non-pay requirements following consideration of its annual programmes and budget submission which is required under the RTC-DIT Acts. The allocation takes into account the complexity of the institute, the range of courses and facilities offered to students, the total number of students, both full-time and part-time, and the nature of the infrastructure. Decisions on the allocations also have regard to Government policy and priorities. My Department's provisional budget to the Waterford Institute of Technology for 2004 is €41.6 million. This compares to a budget of €39.6 million in 2003, an increase of 5.1%.

The distribution of the funding allocated to each institute among individual schools and departments is a matter for the management authorities of the institute. Part-time programmes within institutes are intended to be self-funding.

My officials met WIT representatives in July of this year. It was explained to the institute that the Department could not make specific extra funds available for the music programme and the WIT indicated that it was looking at a range of options aimed at making the programme more viable in the longer term. I understand that following an agreement reached last month between management of the WIT and the Teachers Union of Ireland which provides for the continuing provision of music education at all levels within the institute, it appears that the future of the music school at the WIT has been secured. The terms of this agreement state that intake and throughput of pupils will be monitored and structured in order to achieve an optimum size in relation to available resources. The WIT will also establish a task force to set out a strategy by which progress and development can be renewed from year to year.

I thank the Senator again for raising this matter on the Adjournment.