John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her reply. I want to put this in context and, while I talk about the Minister's funding, my concern is dealing with areas of greatest disadvantage and it goes across a number of Departments. When I join this up with other programmes, I have a concern that the most disadvantaged areas are not receiving the targeted support they did previously. I specifically talk about places where RAPID funding has become the community enhancement programme. When I look behind the detail of the programme, it is a much broader spread rather than targeted at the most disadvantaged.

Regional and local drugs and alcohol task forces have not seen any increase in funding since 2014, having been cut in the previous years. It is in that context that I raised the issue with the Minister and I will raise it with others. The single targeted youth funding programme must be sure that it is identifying and meaningfully supporting our most disadvantaged areas. I am concerned that this number of programmes is resulting in them not being as targeted now as they were previously. That is the source of my concern.

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