Vol. 1060 No. 5
12. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he is satisfied with the funding allocated to the youth sector in budget 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43560/24]
This is about the funding allocated to the youth sector in budget 2025. I note that the National Youth Council of Ireland was particularly disappointed with the amount allocated. Is the Minister satisfied with the budget for next year?
Arising out of budget 2025, €85 million will be allocated to current and capital expenditure for the benefit of young people.
That is an increase in funding of €7 million, or almost 9%, on the 2024 budget. I have increased funding for youth services every single year as Minister. This is the largest boost in youth funding that youth services have received during my time as Minister. The overall level of youth funding has increased by 34% over the past four years and five budgets. The additional funding secured in budget 2025 will support the sustainability of youth organisations, while also expanding youth work service capacity through the funding of new targeted youth services.
Funding secured in budget 2025 will support the implementation of opportunities for youth: the national strategy for youth work and related services 2024-2028. This strategy includes a clear set of strategic objectives and 18 priority actions intended to strengthen the role of youth work and related services in the lives of young people in Ireland.
The funding will also support the UBU your place your space funding scheme. We will be able to open ten new UBU services throughout the country. These are targeted services for some of the most vulnerable young people in our country. They will support more than 1,000 young people in 2025 and beyond.
Funding through the youth services grant scheme, which supports national youth organisations to deliver quality youth services across the State, will also be increased in 2025, up to €1.5 million. Additional funding of €650,000 has been allocated in 2024 to a volunteer activation fund. That is particularly important because many of the youth organisations which engage with me regularly say that since Covid-19, it has been harder and harder to get volunteers to work in youth services. We are looking to focus on that issue.
We are also trying a pilot initiative on holiday hunger, which is a recognition that while the State is now doing a lot to provide food and lunches for young people in primary and secondary schools, many of those young people might be at risk of hunger outside of that context. We are looking to see whether we can pilot supports through youth services.
I thank the Minister. It is important to note that the National Youth Council of Ireland described the budget, particularly the allocation for youth work, as a missed opportunity. It said it was disappointing and falls short of what is critically needed to support Ireland's growing youth population. The confirmed €7 million for the expansion of youth work services is less than half of what was advocated for by young people and the sector, which was €15 million. Both Foróige and the National Youth Council of Ireland advocated for that amount. They also highlighted, given the many pressures young people are under, the need and increasing demand for youth work services. They were disappointed with the allocation and I want to put that on the record. They released a statement in response to the budget once the budget was announced.
It is important we acknowledge the absolute importance of youth work throughout the State now more than ever, given the many pressures young people are under, particularly when it comes to mental health and the need for them to have those spaces in rural and urban areas.
I have increased funding for youth services every year because I see its absolute centrality in allowing for meaningful interventions with some of the most vulnerable young people in society. I fully believe that every young person, irrespective of his or her background or where he or she comes from in our country, should have the option to engage in youth work if he or she so wishes.
We spend a huge amount of money in this country on sport and sporting investment for young people. While that is absolutely right, there is a large contingent for whom sports are not a particular option or interest. We need to meet the needs of those young people as well. We see that in the diversity of youth services. I have been in Huntstown in my own area where there is a Foróige sewing club. Twenty young people meet to repair garments. That is their thing. I am aware other youth services look at a whole range of different areas. The diversity in the sector is absolutely fantastic and something I have always supported verbally and financially.
While I acknowledge the year-on-year increase in funding, I want to convey the disappointment of the National Youth Council of Ireland because it released a statement and I am not sure it got the acknowledgement and the recognition it deserved. It did a lot of work coming up to the budget, as many organisations do. It sought €15 million and outlined exactly what that amount was needed for.
The council has also raised concern that, with additional funding of only €7 million, the new youth work strategy is at risk of not actually being implemented like its predecessor. That is the point it has made. While I welcome the strategy, it is important, going forward, that we ensure it can be funded and fully implemented. There are concerns that funding of €7 million will be insufficient to do that. It is important for the next Dáil, which will be elected shortly, that the strategy, which I welcome and acknowledge, is funded and implemented.
I am anxious to get to one more question. I will only allow Deputy Durkan to have a brief comment.
All my comments are brief. While the work the Minister is doing in the Department with respect to youth and youth federations, such as Foróige etc, is acknowledged, is it accepted that the needs and demand are increasing in this regard? There are more challenges facing youth. Is the Minister satisfied he has sufficient resources to meet those challenges in the future?
The need is absolutely growing in every part of my Department, whether it is youth services, early years, disability or integration and the needs of people fleeing to Ireland. The needs across all parts of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth are growing. I have, however, always prioritised increasing the budget for youth services because it is so important.
In response to Deputy Kerrane, we have not underfunded the new strategy. The new strategy will be central in advancing youth services in the next number of years. As I said, this is the largest increase in funding the sector has seen in the past five years. While I would always like to give more, as I would in all areas of my Department, as I said in response to Deputy Durkan, there is a real need across every part of my Department and we all have to work within an allocation. I look forward to continuing to work with NYCI, Foróige and all those who work in the sector with whom I have always had a good working relationship.
Deputy Marc Ó Cathasaigh can pick from four questions. He will have limited time, however.
That is fine. I understand the time constraints.
13. Deputy Brian Leddin asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to provide an update on the My Little Library book programme for young children; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43359/24]
I love the library. When Tramore library closed for extensive refurbishment that ran over a couple of years, we missed it badly. My kids love the Dog Man series of books. While they might not be on the reading list of the Minister, they are great books. They cost €13 a pop, however, and the kids finish them in approximately one hour and say, thanks Dad.
Getting into the library drives down that cost, obviously. I wish to ask the Minister about the Little Library book programme which is designed to get people in the door in that first instance.
The Little Library universal initiative funded by my Department focuses on strengthening the links between families and their local libraries, as well as encouraging a love of storybooks and reading among young children. The initiative has shown great success with over 70,000 young children having joined their local library because of the Little Library programme. The programme’s primary aims are to promote literacy among all young children in Ireland through an annual book-gifting scheme for children in transitions from pre-school to school. It aims to foster relationships between children and families with their local libraries in order that all children are able to access a lifelong supply of books and are welcomed into their local library as a multi-purpose educational and social space.
It also aims to encourage parent-child bonding through reading as well. I particularly note an innovative reading for fun project through the Dublin prisons visitor centres funded by the Children’s Fund through my Department. It also serves to connect local libraries and early learning and childcare services through the provision of educator library cards, visits and storytelling events.
Just as much as Deputy Ó Cathasaigh has spoken about Tramore library, I equally remember Blanchardstown library when it used to be located in the upper floor of an old building in Roselawn Shopping Centre. While it was a small place, it was always a magical place of me. I used to steal my mother’s adult library card in order to get a couple of more books, particularly some nice whale books. I went for the whale books; that was my thing. It is a hugely important area. I was proud to launch Little Libraries in the new Blanchardstown library, which is a much bigger, multi-purpose building in Blanchardstown town centre beside Fingal County Council offices. One of our local childcare providers arrived with all its young people and they were able to sign up for their library cards. Not only does the individual get the benefit of knowing the library, it is also about that link between the service and the library because it opens up future visits to bed-down that love of books among young people.
Deputy Marc Ó Cathasaigh will only get one chance to reply.
That is no problem. I am fully in support of this programme. It is fantastic. I am a Dad, but I was also a teacher in a previous life.
Bringing school kids to the library and establishing those links is so important in terms of literacy and encouraging kids to read for fun. It has so many benefits in their later life, not only in their progression in literacy but in their access to so many other resources as well. We are talking about an initiative that saves money, builds community and gets kids reading - so much winning, as somebody across the Atlantic might say - so we should do everything we can to improve it and to further fund it.
The one issue I will raise, which I know we have engaged on already, is that Irish-language books should be made available. Ba cheart go mbeadh leabhair ann i nGaeilge freisin ionas go dtabharfaimis an tacaíocht sin do thuismitheoirí atá ag tógáil clainne trí mheán na Gaeilge. It is very important if you are trying to raise your kids through Irish, which can be difficult, that these resources are put in place as well.
I cannot speak our national language with the Deputy's sense of competence, to my shame. When we designed the little book bag programme, which is part of the little libraries initiative, whereby a bag of books was given to each child, in the English-language bag there was at least one Irish-language book. There were also bags with solely Irish-language books. They supported domestic Irish authors and producers of books. We have been very cognisant of the need to support the Irish language. One thing that was seen previously was that there was not a whole lot of Irish-language books for young people. We have been cognisant of that and have included such books in our little book bag programme.
