HC Deb 09 January 2003 vol 397 cc358-9W
Lembit Öpik

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much funding has been made available under the NI Programme for Building Sustainable Prosperity, Measure 4, Investing in Early Learning, to(a) controlled, (b) maintained and (c) grant-maintained integrated schools; and if he will make a statement. [86869]

Jane Kennedy

A total of 11.34 million Euros (of which 8 million Euros is the EU contribution) is available to the Department of Education under Measure 3.4 of the European Union's Building Sustainable Prosperity Programme, for securing the building of controlled, maintained, integrated and Irish-medium pre-school education facilities in local communities. The Measure will allow the Department to reclaim capital expenditure on a programme of nursery units, either built or to be built. The programme must, however, go through the application and selection procedure required by the EU. This procedure has not yet been concluded, and at this stage it is not possible to attribute any costs to Measure 3.4.

However, between 1 January 2000 and November this year, a total of £5,103,000 million has been spent on building units for which the Department expects to reclaim the EU contribution. £2,660,000 million of this has been spent in the controlled sector, £2,134,000 million in the maintained, £239,000 in the integrated and £70,000 in the Irish Medium.