THE DEPARTMENT of Education and Science is standing over its decision to withdraw funding from aeducational and training support project for single mothers in Galway.
However, Minister of State for Education Seán Haughey has agreed to meet representatives of the initiative.
Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin has been criticised by Labour Party president Michael D Higgins over her department's decision to cease supporting the educational initiative.
The Minister's Department said it is supporting a teenage parenting project in the area through the Health Service Executive (HSE) West. However, this is a health-based support plan primarily for parenting, rather than for education, according to the Galway Young Mothers in Education Project.
Many of the participants in the Galway project are independent or lone parents who would have been unable to pursue second- and third-level education without its backing, according to its co-ordinator, Eleanor Clancy.
However, it currently has a €50,000 deficit, which was incurred last year in anticipation of the Department's continued support, and no prospect of further grant-aid, she said.
The project was initiated in 1999 with funding from Galway City Partnership as a special initiative for young people on the city's west side. It now has three staff, based in the city, in Connemara and in the east of Co Galway, and a number of its participants have qualified as teachers, accountants and nurses during that period, Clancy says.
Since 2004, the Department of Education's youth affairs section has given the project once-off annual grants, retrospectively, and it is also backed by Youth Work Ireland. The Department's funding of €25,000 in 2004 and 2005 was doubled to €50,000 for 2006.
"The project had a reasonable expectation of receiving that funding in 2007," Clancy said. "However, we were informed last December that there will be no once-off grant for last year, though we had already spent that budget."
Youth Work Ireland said that while the project has "proven itself again and again as a very successful" scheme, it cannot continue its backing without some guarantee of funding from the Government for this year.
Clancy said the project's beneficiaries were contributing to society "as mothers and workers", but it was a struggle to ensure continued State commitment. "We have women in second- and third-level education who may have to pull out mid-stream if we cannot keep going."
In addition, third-level education institutions have cut back on childcare support for such students, Clancy points out.
Galway Young Mothers in Education confirmed yesterday that the Society of St Vincent de Paul has donated €7,500 to help meet costs of childcare provision for its participants until the end of March.
"If the project is saved from closure, St Vincent de Paul has promised to continue to contribute funding towards the childcare costs of participants," the project said in a statement.