Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 1093: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the supports and financial assistance available for the special needs of gifted children; and if he will reconsider the decision to cut funding to the Irish Centre for Talented Youth in Dublin City University in view of the exceptional work carried out by this facility. [12080/09]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Notwithstanding the increase of €302 million in the Education budget for 2009, which is a real achievement in the current economic climate, a number of tough and difficult decisions had to be taken.

These decisions included the decision to discontinue the annual funding of €97,000 that my Department made available to the Centre for Talented Youth (CTYI) at Dublin City University.

While it is appreciated that the discontinuation of this funding will impact on the Centre, given the current volatile and challenging economic climate, difficult choices had to be made in order to contain public sector spending. Tax revenues are down significantly and Government expenditure has to reflect this reality. The priority of this budget was to focus on measures to channel as much as was possible of the available resources to the direct funding of our schools.