Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 58: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his attention has been drawn to the waiting lists for persons wishing to avail of Youthreach centres which indicate the high demand for Youthreach courses; and his plans to provide €10 million in additional funding to provide an extra 500 places in the scheme. [34874/11]

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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There are almost 6,000 Youthreach places available nationwide under the Youthreach umbrella funded by my Department. The overall number of approved Youthreach places is set at its current level because there is a continuing requirement to plan and control numbers and to manage expenditure within the context of overall educational policy and provision. Any consideration of providing additional Youthreach places would have to take account of the present and prospective economic and budgetary context and related financial constraints.

I am aware that there is significant demand for further education and training programmes in general but my Department does not collect data on waiting lists, including for the Youthreach programme.