Vol. 518 No. 4
20 Mr. Naughten asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will allocate additional funding to youth organisations to fulfil their obligations set out in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11767/00]
I am aware of what is stated in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness on the development of youth work services, including the funding of the voluntary youth organisations. It is my intention to honour fully the commitments in relation to youth work referred to in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness and I will outline for the Deputy some of the developments that are taking place in relation to youth work.
The financial allocation for the year 2000 for youth work funding, including voluntary youth organisations, is £17.78 million, which is an increase of £2.34 million or 15% over the 1999 provision. This is additional to an increase of £1.5 million given in the 1999 allocation. That is tangible evidence of the Government's commitment to and desire for significant expansion in the provision of youth work programmes and services.
The following specific measures which are taking place are of particular importance and relevance. The Government gave its approval at yesterday's meeting to the publication of the Youth Work Bill. It will, therefore, be published on the first day of the next session.
Congratulations.
I thank the Deputy. If his party had done it properly in the first place we would not have to go through it all again.
I have asked the National Youth Work Advisory Committee to prepare a youth work development plan which will map the way forward for the next five years for the development of youth work services. I have allocated funding to enable consultants to be employed to assist the National Youth Work Advisory Committee in this major undertaking. An allocation of £1 million has been made for the local youth clubs grant scheme in 2000, which is an increase of approximately £600,000 over the 1999 provision. This is an extremely important scheme in that it provides direct financial assistance for local youth clubs and groups, with priority being given to disadvantaged areas. An assessor of youth work will be appointed during the year 2000 and funding has been allocated for that. It is intended that the assessor will formally monitor and assess youth work programmes and services.
As regards the voluntary youth work organisations directly, the allocations in 2000 will be increased in line with inflation as first phase allocations. The distribution of the balance of the funding available this year will be decided on at a later date after examination of the various proposals received from the organisations in respect of new or expanded youth work activities. I hope to be in a position to indicate the additional funding to be made available to the organisations in June 2000.
I presume the additional allocation in the 15% increase from 1999 is for the development of new services and facilities. I welcome such a measure. However, under the new programme there is a commitment to increase basic pay by 5.5%. Will the Minister of State introduce a Supplementary Estimate to ensure these youth organisations can provide this increase in basic pay for their employees?
Part of the additional funding allocated for this year is in respect of pay increases.
Does the Minister of State agree, therefore, that the 15% increase represents only a 9.5% increase in real terms? If inflation is excluded, the increase is 4% to 5% which is a very small increase in funding for services for young people with such demands placed on them. Under the programme what targets has the Minister of State set in the Department for new services for young people and youth organisations?
The Deputy's figures are incorrect. When I took office in 1997, the total allocation was £13.345 million.
I am talking about this year.
This year it will be £17.78 million which represents an increase of 33% in actual terms during the lifetime of this Administration which is two years and eight months old. If inflation is allowed for, this represents an increase of about 25% in real terms in two and a half years. That is tangible evidence of our commitment to the development and expansion of youth services.
As far as targets are concerned, the national development plan under which I am assisting youth organisations will be available around March or April 2001. The appropriate targets will be included and the Deputy need have no doubts about the Government's commitment to assisting youth organisations meet those targets.
Does the Minister of State need a lesson in mathematics? Inflation is running at 5%. Is it not the case that, under the new programme, voluntary organisations are committed to increasing basic pay by 5.5%? This brings the total to 10.5% and the total increase for the coming year will be 4.5% for the development of services and facilities. Is this correct?
I listened during questions to the Taoiseach and I have to conclude that Fine Gael is scraping the bottom of the barrel. For the past 45 minutes a great deal of rubbish was spoken about the minutia of the Taoiseach's spending programme and we are at it again. If Fine Gael has nothing more constructive to say or nothing more tangible to put across I do not know where it is going as a party. We have increased the provision for youth funding by 25% in real terms for the expansion of services.
The Minister of State said 15%.
The increased allocation for this year is about £2.4 million. Of that sum, £231,000 is allocated for pay increases. The Deputy can work out the figures and he will see we expanded the youth budget substantially in real terms this year and last year. The Government is committed to continuing to do so.
I took over a service which was grossly under funded by my predecessors. We are still well behind other countries but there is a substantial difference in that the Irish youth service depends on volunteers to a large extent. One cannot compare a system depending largely on volunteers with a professional system. The latter is much more expensive. We have increased funding in real terms by about 25% over the past two and a half years and if one excludes the average rate of inflation the expansion is 25% – 33 minus eight is 25.
