John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 1307: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if the budget allocated to the Dublin City and County VECs have been increased or reduced in 2005; her views on the fact that the fee being charged by Dublin VEC for adult education classes appears to have increased very significantly from €70 to €130 and from €22 to €45 for the over 65s. [25925/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The funding provided by my Department to the Dublin city and county VECs for community education has increased from €2,041,147 in 2004 to €2,267,000 in 2005, an increase of over 11%.

Community education is available to all. It refers to education and learning, generally outside the formal education sector, with the aims of enhancing learning, empowerment and contributing to civic society. It is firmly community-based, with local groups taking responsibility for, and playing a key role in, organising courses, deciding on programme content and recruiting tutors. The grants provided by the Department to the VECs are to enable disadvantaged adults to avail of community education at minimal or no cost. For those attending adult literacy classes there is no charge. Others who do not come within the disadvantaged category, or who attend leisure or hobby type courses, have to pay the economic fee.

It is a matter for each VEC to finance its adult education programmes from within its approved budget, and it has discretion in setting the fees charged to those clients who have the means to pay. The fees charged by the two VECs in question would reflect the economic cost of the courses.