Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 117: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide free university places for the long-term unemployed to allow them to retrain and re-enter the workforce; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34815/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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All full-time approved higher education undergraduate programmes covered by the free fees scheme are open to unemployed people. All such people undertaking these programmes may be eligible to participate in the Back to Education Allowance (BTEA) Scheme administered by the Department of Social Protection or be eligible for support under this Department's Student Grant Scheme. Further information is available on the Student Finance website: www.studentfinance.ie.

In addition, since early 2009, a number of specific initiatives to facilitate unemployed people to access flexible higher education programmes have been undertaken. Almost 1,800 unemployed people were supported to embark on part-time undergraduate and postgraduate programmes from September 2009 in areas that support the goals of the 'Smart Economy' and over 1,000 unemployed people participated in a range of newly developed accelerated Level 6 Certificate programmes and part-time transition programmes.

The Labour Market Activation Fund (LMAF), which I launched in March of this year, is designed to assist in the creation of innovative training and education provision by private, not-for-profit and public sector providers. It is targeted at specific priority groups among the unemployed, namely the low skilled and those formerly employed in declining sectors - construction, retail and manufacturing sectors - with particular emphasis on the under 35s and the long-term unemployed. More than 2,000 places have been made available in 12 higher education institutions under the 2010 LMAF. The further development of labour market activation initiatives in the higher education sector is under consideration in the context of 2011 budget proposals