Ms Dearbhla Holohan:

We were funded through a special EU programmes body, PEACE IV. We hope PEACEPLUS will be launched next month. Ms Nolan spoke earlier about issues we have had with the gap in funding. With the Strive programme we will apply and we hope we will get further funding to expand the programme. Again, the concern is that if we are lucky enough to be successful, we will be looking into 2023. Parallel to that is the European Social Fund money, and that will end at the end of March 2023. That is what I spoke about earlier with Dr. Stephen Farry.

It is a very concerning question across the communities sector. There is not like-for-like funding ready to go and these processes take a long time to develop, as the committee knows. I know representatives of the SEUPB were here a few months ago and there was a lengthy consultation process for PEACEPLUS. The funding process will be quite long as well and there will be a number of calls over the next couple of years. In terms of a replacement programme around European Social Fund for employability, nothing exists as far as we know. We are not entirely sure what is going to come out through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund but certainly it will not be like-for-like funding or anything close to it. Again, we are looking at the same scenario of big gaps in the funding mechanism.

I can briefly touch on the child sexual exploitation matter if anybody wants to follow up on funding afterwards.