Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 July 2022
742. Deputy Alan Dillon asked the Minister for Justice the reason that additional support workers were not approved to support the extension of services in County Mayo for early intervention and family under the Youth Justice Strategy 2021-2027 that had very similar referral numbers and crime statistics to the midlands who received up to three additional family support and early intervention workers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37563/22]
View answerJustice Plan 2022 commits to the implementation of the Government’s Youth Justice Plan, which includes preventing offending behaviour from occurring and diverting children and young adults who commit a crime away from further offending and involvement with the criminal justice system.
The Youth Diversion Projects (YDPs) are community-based projects that offer vital support to the statutory Garda Youth Diversion Programme.
There are currently 105 YDPs across the State and the Youth Justice Strategy commits to expanding the network to provide cover to every child/young person who needs to access their services.
Youth Justice services were allocated an additional €6.7 million in funding for 2022. I announced on 22 June that over 50 YDPs would benefit from this additional funding to:
- Extend the boundaries of some YDPs to increase geographical coverage, as provided for in the Youth Justice Strategy,
- Increase funding to engage with the harder to reach cohort of referrals,
- Provide additional early intervention supports,
- Provide family supports to the relatives of those young people engaged with the YDPs,
- Further develop the Solas initiative in Dublin.
Of this €6.7million, approximately €780,000 has been set aside to establish a limited number of new YDPs this year to cover geographical areas which cannot be covered sufficiently through the expansion of existing YDPs and it is anticipated that details will be announced in respect of those new YDPs as soon as possible.
The Projects are funded through my Department. However, as the Deputy will appreciate, the funding needs of individual YDPs differ based on a range of criteria, such as the geographical area in which the Project operates, the number of referrals to the YDP and the number of the 'hard to reach' cohort of these referrals, amongst others.
My Department offers funding appropriate to the needs of each YDP as determined by standard budgetary processes. Funding fluctuates based upon the YDPs' determination of their needs against the available budget for Youth Justice services annually.
I should also point out that those projects whose applications were not successful in this round have been informed that their applications are on file. Applications will be kept under review as the year progresses in the context of overall expenditure trends on the Youth Justice subhead.
