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

The youth affairs unit of my Department supports the delivery of a range of youth work programmes and services for all young people, including those from disadvantaged communities, by the voluntary youth sector. The funding schemes support national and local youth work provision for some 400,000 young people and involve approximately 1,400 paid staff and 40,000 volunteers.

In line with Government policy, my Department, with all other Departments, has been required to achieve significant savings on schemes and services in line with the reductions set out in the comprehensive review of expenditure, CRE. However, I am pleased to advise the Deputy that, as part of budget 2014, I have secured an additional allocation of €1 million in current funding to reduce the impact of the CRE savings requirements on youth services next year. This means that the savings requirement in 2014 will be €2 million rather than the €3 million indicated for youth services in the CRE. The total current funding allocation for youth services will be €49.78 million.

The CRE proposed reductions of 10% for national youth organisations and reductions of 5% for local youth projects in 2014. While my Department is still finalising the 2014 allocations, I can advise the Deputy that the reductions will be significantly lower that those proposed in the CRE. Every effort is being made to finalise these allocations promptly in order that youth projects and national youth organisations can be advised of their 2014 allocations as soon as possible.

I will continue to meet representatives of many youth organisations and groups to try to see how we can work together to ensure the most effective and efficient use of the resources available in order to continue to support the provision of quality youth services for young people in 2014. The CRE had projected reductions of 10% for national youth organisations and 5% for local youth projects, but I have managed to ameliorate these reductions to a significant degree through an additional budgetary allocation.

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