Anne Rabbitte
Question:667. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her Department's expenditure on youth service by receiving organisation in each of the years 2011 to 2016 and to date in 2017. [24290/17]
View answerTuesday, 23 May 2017
Questions (667)
Written answers
The information requested relates to funding schemes that annually support national and local youth work provision to some 380,000 young people and involve approximately 1,400 youth work staff in 477 projects throughout the country. I am pleased to confirm that I have allocated an extra €5.5m in current funding to support the provision of youth services in 2017. This will bring the total youth funding by my Department to €57.4m, an increase of 10% over last year's allocation. The additional funding is being used for programmes that target disadvantaged young people and to assist national youth organisations in their work to support local voluntary youth services.
These schemes include the Youth Service Grant Scheme under which funding is made available on an annual basis to thirty national and major regional youth organisations. In 2017, some €10.65m has been allocated under this scheme, a 5% increase over 2016. This funding is intended to ensure the emergence, promotion, growth and development of youth organisations with distinctive philosophies and programmes aimed at the social education of young people.
Information on the funding provided to youth services by receiving organisation in each of the years 2011 to 2016 has been forwarded to the Deputy. The 2017 allocations also forwarded to the Deputy provide for an increase of up to 5% to all existing youth projects. My Department is at present engaged in the distribution of this funding which is an ongoing process. Grants are generally paid to recipients in four quarterly instalments subject to receipt of the required documentation. It is expected subject to the receipt of this documentation that 50% of the 2017 Allocations will be released to all funding intermediaries by 30 June 2017.