Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 May 2023
490. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development if she will provide a schedule on a county and local authority basis showing the funding her Department has provided to youth-focused community-based organisations to deliver support services in 2020, 2021, 2022 and to date in 2023; and the amount she has provided to Tusla in respect of same. [20661/23]
View answerThe Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is responsible for the provision of funding for delivery of support services to youth organisations. While my Department may provide some ad-hoc funding under our programmes to youth-focused organisations for specific initiatives, it does not provide any direct funding for delivery of support services for young people.
Some examples of the type of ad-hoc funding provided by my Department include:
• Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP), the Government's primary social inclusion programme, provides funding to tackle poverty and social exclusion for disadvantaged individuals and community organisations, including some that provide services to disadvantaged young people.
• The COVID-19 Stability Fund for Community and Voluntary Organisations, Charities and Social Enterprises provided support to qualifying organisations who found themselves in particular difficulty and projected their trading and/or fundraising income would drop significantly due to the social restrictions introduced to counter the spread of COVID-19. Community based youth services were one of a number of eligible services.
• In response to rising energy costs, my Department introduced the Community & Voluntary Energy Support Scheme for registered charities within the community and voluntary sector. Some of those charities provide services to youth-focused community-based organisations.
My Department has not had any engagement with Tusla in respect of this matter.
