Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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519. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount that has been allocated each year since 2006 for adult numeracy and literacy initiatives; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26225/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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€23 million in funding was provided by my Department in 2006 for the provision of adult literacy and numeracy services. Funding in the region of €30 million was provided by my Department for each of the years 2007 to 2013. At the beginning of 2014 SOLAS took over the allocation of monies for all further education and training programmes, including the literacy service, with funding provided by my Department. SOLAS provided funding in the region of €30 million for the provision of adult literacy and numeracy services for each of the years 2014 and 2015. It is expected that this level of funding will be maintained for the current year.

Since 2010, my Department also funds the Workplace Basic Education Programme from the National Training Fund. The programme provides literacy and numeracy tuition to people in the workplace. The funding provided for the years 2010-2016 is as follows:

2010€1.609m

2011€2.8m

2012€2.17m

2013€2.55m

2014€2.8m

2015€2.8m

2016€2.8m.