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Mr. John D. Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what applications there are for the provision of pre-schooleducation at Kircubbin, County Down; what funding is available for pre-school education; and if such funding would be available ifpre-school provision in Kircubbin were under the control of the (a) South-Eastern Education and Libraries Board and (b) Council forCatholic Maintained Schools [115397]Mr. George Howarth: An application for the provision of a free-standing community nursery school in Kircubbin has been offeredcapital 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 MaintainedSchools, the community group promoting the nursery school in Kircubbin decided that it should be managed as a Catholic maintainednursery school but with a cross-community Board of Governors. The funding would equally have been available had the community groupchosen 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 alternativeproject in the Kircubbin area at this stage. |