Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 184: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will provide a separate budget for the provision of English language education to speakers of other languages due to the rapidly increasing number of people who seek English language education and the effect this is having on the capacity to provide for adult literacy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5103/07]

Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

My Department gives an annual grant to all Vocational Education Committees for the provision of Adult Literacy and Community Education. This fund may be used for the teaching of English to immigrants. The cost of the literacy service delivered by VECs was over €23 million in 2006. The number of students was over 35,000. 27% of these, amounting to 10,000 clients, attended English for Speakers as Other Language (ESOL) courses.

The White Paper on Adult Education "Learning for Life" (2000) stated that asylum seekers would be entitled to free access to Adult Literacy, English language and mother culture supports and refugees are entitled to the same access to education and training as Irish nationals. The language needs of migrants formed part of the negotiations between social partners in drawing up the new social partnership agreement "Towards 2016". A prioritised action included in the agreement is that the annual student cohort availing of the general national literacy service delivered by the Vocational Education Committees will be significantly increased by the provision of an extra 7,000 places by 2009, 3,000 of which will be provided this year. There will be a particular focus on the increasing number of migrants receiving an English language service (ESOL) under the terms of the agreement.

I have no plans to provide a separate funding line at this time and would be anxious to ensure that VECs would continue to have the flexibility that the present arrangement affords. The scope of the both literacy and ESOL services is subject to limitations on overall funding.