Mr. John D. TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what applications there are for the provision of pre-school education at Kircubbin, County Down; what funding is available for pre-school education; and if such funding would be available if pre-school provision in Kircubbin were under the control of the(a) South-Eastern Education and Libraries Board and (b) Council for Catholic Maintained Schools [115397]
§ Mr. George HowarthAn application for the provision of a free-standing community nursery school in Kircubbin has been offered capital funding of £225,000 under the EU Special Support Programme for Peace and Reconciliation by the Department of Education.
Following discussions with representatives of the South-Eastern Education and Library Board and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools, the community group promoting the nursery school in Kircubbin decided that it should be managed as a Catholic maintained nursery school but with a cross-community Board of Governors. The funding would equally have been available had the community group chosen to follow the management model for a controlled school.
As the deadline for expenditure of these EU funds is 31 December 2000, the funding could not be transferred to an alternative project in the Kircubbin area at this stage.