Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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486. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide figures, in tabular form, on the funding allocated to each of the further education and training colleges from September 2011 to September 2014. [27133/15]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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My Department does not hold records on allocations of funding to individual Further Education and Training Colleges.

Funding for further education programmes was previously allocated by my Department to VECs and the further allocation of these resources to colleges/centres under their remit was a matter for each VEC. FAS/SOLAS were previously responsible for the operation of Training Centres and these centres transferred to the Education and Training Boards (ETBs) during 2014.

SOLAS now has responsibility for providing funding for further education and training programmes to ETBs. This funding is allocated through an annual service planning process. My Department directly funds the teaching costs and part of the capitation grants of the Post Leaving Certificate (PLC) programme along with the second level schools programme.

Financial allocations are made to the ETBs on the basis of the financial year rather than the academic year, and are paid as a block grant, divided between pay and non-pay. ETBs manage their budgets and further distribute the allocations they receive from SOLAS in line with its priorities and identified needs.