My Department administers a range of funding schemes and programmes to support the provision of youth services to young people throughout the country including those from disadvantaged communities. The funding schemes support national and local youth work involving approximately 1,400 youth work staff working in youth services and communities throughout the country.
Budget 2017 provided an additional €5.5m in current funding to my Department to support the provision of these youth services. This will bring total youth funding in 2017 to €57.4m. The current allocations to my Department between 2014 and 2016 were as follows:
Year
|
Current allocation
|
2014
|
€49.78
|
2015
|
€49.93
|
2016
|
€51.86
|
In recent years, capital funding has been made available to my Department to purchase equipment and to support small scale projects, including refurbishment, health and safety fit-outs and accessibility improvements in local voluntary youth services. The capital allocations to my Department between 2014 and 2016 were as follows:
Year
|
Capital allocation
|
2014
|
€500.000
|
2015
|
€500,000
|
2016
|
€2,600,000
|
My Department is developing proposals for the disbursal of the 2017 capital funding allocation and I hope to be in a position to announce details in the coming months.