Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 30 March 2017
260. Deputy Willie Penrose asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if consideration will be given to providing grant aid to complete a youth development project (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15985/17]
View answerIn 2013 a capital allocation of €1.5m was made available by my Department for the provision of new youth cafés. Pobal assisted my Department with the administration of the scheme. Some 95 applications were received and 30 proposals for new youth cafes around the country were approved for funding.
I am advised that an application was received in respect of a youth café in Monasterevin from Kildare Youth Services. However, the application was unsuccessful on that occasion as it did not achieve a sufficiently high score for inclusion in the final list of projects approved for funding. An application from County Kildare Youth Hub in Kildare Town was successful and has received a capital grant of €50,000 towards the cost of developing a new youth café facility, which has now opened.
Youth cafés offer young people a safe, alcohol and drug free space, for recreation, non-formal learning and youth activities and they make an important contribution to facilities for young people at local level. Recent research undertaken by my Department indicates that there are now more than 150 youth cafés throughout the country. In the main, these have been developed, over the years, by local communities with the support of different funding sources.
My Department does not have available to it in 2017 a capital fund for the development of new youth cafés. The development of further youth cafés will be considered as part of a needs based, decision making process for any future capital funding that becomes available.
