Noel Rock (Dublin North West, Fine Gael)
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375. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his Department is in a position to provide further funding for the Ballymun Music Programme, an initiative co-funded by DIT; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24800/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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In relation to the third level sector, my Department allocates recurrent funding to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) for direct disbursement to the HEA designated higher education institutions. The HEA allocates this funding to the institutions and the internal disbursement of this funding, along with funding it receives from private sources, is then a matter for the individual institution.

The Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) Ballymun Music Programme (originally the Ballymun Wind Band Project) grew out of a 'Breaking the Cycle' Initiative, funded by the Department of Education and Skills and Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) in St Joseph's Primary Schools in Ballymun in 1996. I am aware that initiatives such as the DIT Ballymun Music Programme play an enormous role in providing children with access to non-mainstream music education.

My Department is very committed to the implementation of the objectives outlined in the Arts in Education Charter, which was published in 2012, and has consequently made a number of significant commitments, both of a financial and staffing nature, to various initiatives outlined therein on the advice and recommendations of the Charter Implementation Group. It is very important that the initiatives outlined in the Charter continue to be supported while also being cognisant of limited resources available.

The Department of Education and Skills also established a Committee for Non-Mainstream Department of Education and Skills funded Music Education. It was allocated a fund of €50,000 to provide bursaries for non-mainstream music initiatives in 2016. The Committee sought applications for the bursary. Over 70 applications were received. A sub-group of the Committee considered the applications. It was decided to provide bursaries to 25 initiatives. The DIT Ballymun Music Programme was a recipient of a bursary €10,000 earlier this year which I presented myself to Ron Cooney, the Programme Manager for this initiative.

Unfortunately it is not possible to provide additional financial support to the DIT Ballymun Music Programme at the present time.