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Children and Family Services Provision

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 May 2019

Tuesday, 28 May 2019

Questions (414)

Bernard Durkan

Question:

414. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the extent to which she has been in a position to offer grant aid to various youth organisations and-or child support agencies; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22456/19]

View answer

Written answers

I am pleased to inform the Deputy that Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, will receive Exchequer funding of over €787m in 2019.

Tusla allocates some €150 million annually to a range of community and voluntary organisations which provide services to achieve better outcomes for vulnerable children, and families, that require interventions and supports.

In 2019, €60.4m has been allocated in current funding to support the provision of youth services, an increase of €1.5m on 2018. This 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.

My Department has also provided an additional 12% in overall funding for the Local Youth Club Grant Scheme, which supports youth work activities at a local level, bringing the total allocation to over €2m.

The detail of the €60.4 million funding allocation for youth work provision in 2019, according to schemes is given in the following table:

Funding Scheme

2019 Allocation

Targeted Youth Funding Scheme

€35,183,847

Youth Information Centres

€1,377,060

Youth Service Grant Scheme

€11,126,380

Revised Youth Funding Scheme VFM

€3,357,346

Local Youth Club Grant Scheme (inc CDYSB Annual Grant)

€2,531,206

Youth Officer Allocation + Technical Assistance

€3,680,092

LGBT Strategy

€400,000

Other National Youth Organisations and Youth Initiatives

€1,721,960

DCYA Policy and Support Programmes (inc. contingency)

€533,207

New Initiatives and other funding streams within Department

€483,902

Total

€60,395,000

As the Deputy is aware my Department is currently managing the most significant reform of youth services ever undertaken. This will provide an opportunity to identify need and to focus funding on young people most in need of intervention.

Future development and investment in youth services will be informed by the mapping exercise completed in 2017, which mapped youth service provision across the State as well as an Area Profiling, Needs Assessment and Service Requirement tool which was designed in collaboration with the Education and Training Board (ETB) sector and was officially launched in January 2019. This mapping and tool will assist the Department and the relevant ETB in developing a detailed social demographic profile in terms of both population numbers and deprivation levels. My Department is committed to working with ETBs to identify requirements in their area and facilitate decisions on service requirement by reference to evidenced need.

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