John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this Adjournment debate on behalf of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Fitzgerald, and I welcome this opportunity to address this issue and thank the Senator for raising it.

Some ¤53.173 million is being provided in 2013 by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs to support the delivery of a range of youth work programmes and youth services for all young people, including those from disadvantaged communities, by the voluntary youth work sector. The focus of this financial support in 2013, as in previous years, is on the consolidation of existing youth work provision and on the safeguarding, as far as possible, of front-line programmes, services and jobs, particularly in disadvantaged communities.

This funding is delivered through a number of schemes including the youth service grant scheme, special projects for youth, youth information centres, young peoples' facilities and services fund, local drugs task force and local youth club grant scheme. Youth work programmes and youth services are delivered to some 400,000 young people by over 1,400 youth work personnel, who in turn support a large volunteer base of some 40,000 people.

As part of our efforts to address Ireland's deficit, all Departments have had to find savings. The comprehensive review of expenditure published in December 2011 requires savings to be made in the Department's youth work budget. The 2013 allocation for youth work, between current and capital, will be in excess of ¤53 million. This remains a significant level of funding.

Nonetheless the Minister is acutely aware that the youth work sector has seen its budget reduced significantly over recent years. The savings required under the comprehensive review of expenditure in respect of this year amount to ¤5.393 million, which equates to almost a 10% reduction on 2012 funding. It should be noted there were no reductions in the national funding envelope for the local youth club grant scheme in 2012 or in 2013. This scheme funds approximately 1,600 groups throughout the country, which in turn provide activities to 100,000 young people.

In addition, ¤1.5 million will be provided in 2013 for youth cafes and youth projects. My Department will be announcing further details regarding the application process for the 2013 funding programmes very shortly. This follows on from funding of ¤500,000 which was provided in 2012 for the development of a number of youth cafes which had applied for previous youth cafe funding schemes.

The reduced allocation in the youth budget in recent years has required much tighter budget management and prioritisation. Officials of the Department have met with representatives of the youth sector on an ongoing basis to ascertain the sector's views on how best to minimise the impact of budgetary constraints with a view to consolidating, as far as is practicable, the progress made in previous years and to safeguard the services for the most vulnerable young people.

The Department has also exhorted all the national youth organisations and vocational education committees to revisit their level of expenditure to determine where cost savings can be achieved, bearing in mind the challenging budgetary situation that we face at this time.

To maximise the use of the funding available for youth services and programmes, the Department has afforded flexibility to the grant administering bodies to propose the reconfiguration of the allocations provided, having regard to the knowledge available to these bodies about the needs of young people at local level. Any such local proposals or recommendations require the approval of my Department before they are implemented. For example, earlier this week the City of Dublin Youth Service Board submitted a proposal to the Department requesting that percentage reductions which are different to those outlined in the CRE would be applied to the projects in the Dublin city area. The Minister is examining this proposal which is just received and will be responding to CDYSB in relation to the recommendations very shortly.

The Department has commenced a formal and comprehensive value for money review of youth funding and this is expected to report by mid-year. The Department has also prioritised the improvement of quality provision in youth work through the publication and ongoing implementation of a national quality standards framework for youth work. The Department has also developed national quality standards for volunteer-led youth groups which will be launched next week.