To ask the Minister of Education to detail any plans he has to increase the funding available to (i) the Intercultural Education Service; and (ii) the Addressing Bullying In Schools team. following the recent racially-motivated disorder.

The Intercultural Education Service (IES) is a mainstreamed service, the cost of which is met from the Education Authority’s (EA) annual block grant. The allocation and management of the funding from the annual block allocation made available for the operation of IES is therefore a matter for the EA.

As the Department is facing a significant budgetary overcommitment in the current financial year, there is no scope for increasing the earmarked budget for ABSIT at this time. The level of Departmental funding for ABSIT in future financial years will be considered within the context of the Department’s overall budgetary settlement.