Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 29 June 2016

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs

Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised)

9:00 am

Photo of Katherine ZapponeKatherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will focus on programme A in my Department's Vote, concerning the children and family support programme. The overall objective under this programme is to support and improve the existing service delivery arrangements to protect and support the welfare and well-being of children, young people and families, including oversight of Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. Two main components of this programme are Tusla and the Irish Youth Justice Service. The funding for subhead A3, Tusla in 2016 amounts to €676.042 million, comprising €662.482 million in current funding and €13.560 million in capital funding. This capital sum is, as I said earlier, being supplemented by a further €2.5 million, which was made available from the carryover of unspent funds in 2015.

The committee might also note that the baseline allocation to the agency for 2016 includes an additional €15 million that was acquired through the Supplementary Estimate in December 2015. Current expenditure at the end of May 2016 - because looking at how we are doing is also part of our deliberations on this subhead - amounted to €270.698 million against a profile or estimate of €269.68 million.

That minor variation of 0.4% is attributable largely to timing issues and is expected to equalise over the remainder of the year with the subhead being on profile at the year end. It is similarly expected that Tusla will fully utilise its capital funding allocation in 2016. Monitoring and oversight are vital and my leadership is key in all of that.

In turning to subhead A4, youth justice - it is on page 5 of the briefing provided to members but it is not subhead A7, it should read A4 - the allocation for 2016 amounts to €22.551 million. That includes €21.611 million in current and €0.940 million in capital. Additional funding of €1.6 million is being provided in this subhead in 2016 to support the running costs of the new children’s detention facility in Oberstown, which I was very pleased to visit last week, as well as a bail support scheme designed to provide therapy services in the community to assist children in adhering to bail conditions. The overall objective of the bail support scheme is to reduce demand for detention school places where possible and minimise as far as possible the remand of children in custody so that they are being supported instead within the community.

It is anticipated that the current provision of €21.611 million for this year will be sufficient to meet costs in 2017. However, at present the picture in relation to the capital spend in youth justice, all of which is related to the construction project for the new children’s detention facility in Oberstown, is less clear. The project is nearing completion. However, in 2016 it is expected that a deficit of approximately €1.6 million will surface this year as a result of structural and other design issues. Discussions are ongoing with the OPW to identify the definitive value of the cost overrun. Notwithstanding these ongoing discussions, it is hoped that any funding shortfall in this instance can be accommodated within the resources allocated to the Vote in 2016. I am very happy to take any questions from the committee on this programme.

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