Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased that we have been able to keep 90% of the funding in those services.

I take the Deputy's point regarding the challenges faced by some of the services. Cherry Orchard, which she mentioned, gets €297,488 and it has been asked to make a 2% saving. The Base, with a budget of nearly €393,000, has been asked to make a 10% saving. I appreciate this is challenging but in terms of the ongoing delivery of services, the CDYSB, which has analysed the position and has spoken to the providers of these services, has assured me that it will re-examine the position if there is a question of front-line services being seriously affected. My Department is engaged in a discussion with a number of youth clubs and organisations where there was a question that a service might not continue and I am open to discussion on particular services. I am happy to ask the CDYSB to re-examine if there is a serious threat to front-line services.

There has been no cutback in Garda diversion programmes, for example. The Garda is telling Deputy Collins that in terms of liaison with youth services, it is having some difficulties. I would want to know about those. To reassure the Deputy, even in her own constituency, in many of the youth funded projects the savings have been of the order of, for the most part, 5% and 2%. As I stated, the larger youth services have been asked to take the 10% cut because they have larger budgets and it was hoped that they would be able to deal with it.

I would prefer not to be doing this. I look forward to having growth again so that we can support this valuable work. Even in instances where there is currently a question of a 10% cutback, the CDYSB can examine the precise implications and how the particular service is dealing with that funding requirement.

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