Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I thank the Senator for the opportunity to allow me, on behalf of the Minister, to clarify this situation concerning the Reach fund in 2025. The Reach fund is a dedicated fund to support the most disadvantaged learners to access education and training provided by ETBs and community education providers.

Investment in community education increased by 52% from 2018 to 2024, from nearly €11 million in 2018 to nearly €17 million in 2024. In recent years this investment has been bolstered by the introduction of the Reach fund. Introduced in 2020, the fund assists ETBs to increase their capacity and that of community education providers to address the decline in participation of disadvantaged learners, particularly those on literacy and basic skills programmes at NFQ levels 1 to 3. Over the years, the fund has helped to tackle inequalities and support access to vital community education. A fundamental goal of the Department, and indeed the Government, is to promote access, collaboration and innovation in community education. The fund places a strong focus on community education as a mechanism to continue to support and engage with disadvantaged learners. It is open to community and youth education groups to apply for funding through their local ETB.

Cork Education and Training Board, the Senator's local ETB, is investing over €500,000 in nearly 45,000 learners in projects right across the area, including a Ballyhoura Development CLG project titled "Empower to employ: Bridging Educational gaps for Job Readiness", which is helping Ukrainian migrants, among others, to prepare for employment.

In terms of the process, at the start of each year SOLAS sets out funding allocations for the Reach fund and guidelines for ETBs for the administration of the funding. These guidelines include details relating to governance, funding categories, how the funding process should operate and reporting requirements. For the 2025 call for the Reach fund, SOLAS issued allocations to ETBs for the fund for just over €5 million. It should be noted that this figure represents an allocation rather than guaranteed expenditure. While €5 million was available for Reach in 2025, only €4.5 million worth of projects met the eligibility criteria and are being funded. In some cases, the full allocation is not disbursed or drawn down. This can occur where applications are submitted late, required documentation is missing or proposals do not meet the programme's guidelines, or there are insufficient applications to fully utilise the funding. In September the Department announced the allocation of Reach funding of over €4.5 million in 2025 for over 700 community projects across Ireland, supporting over 100,000 learners.

The planning and delivery of services by ETBs is rightly a matter for each individual board, taking into account their allocated budgets and the specific needs of their local communities. I believe the Senator will agree that it would be neither practical nor appropriate for a Minister to become involved in the day-to-day operational decisions of these autonomous bodies.