Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to address this issue. I thank Senator Power for raising it. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs is providing ¤53.173 million in 2013 to support the delivery of youth work programmes and youth services to all young people, including those from disadvantaged communities, by the voluntary youth work sector. Youth work programmes and youth services are delivered to approximately 400,000 young people by over 1,400 youth work personnel, who in turn support a large volunteer base of approximately 40,000 people. Like all areas of the public sector, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs has had to find savings as part of the Government's collective effort to reduce this country's unsustainable day-to-day deficit.

The comprehensive review of expenditure, which was published in December 2011, clearly sets out the savings required from the Department in 2012, 2013 and 2014. The review, which is available on the website of the Department of Public Expenditure, contains a detailed seven-page chapter outlining the savings required from youth work funding schemes. The overall level of savings required under the comprehensive review of expenditure in respect of 2013 amounts to almost 10%. The funding allocations for 2013 were notified to the administering bodies in recent weeks. The Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, and officials from her Department have met representatives of the youth sector in recent months with a view to determining how best to minimise the impact on youth services of the 2013 budget reduction in the challenging budgetary situation that we currently face. Administering bodies have been advised to consider salary levels, conditions and administrative costs across their projects and services, if these have not already been addressed. Every effort is being made to safeguard front-line youth services and services for the most vulnerable young people as far as possible.

The Department, in trying to maximise the use of the available funding for youth services and programmes, has given the local grant administering bodies - normally the VECs - the flexibility 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. In this context, the City of Dublin Youth Services Board, as the local grant administering body in the Dublin city area, submitted a proposal to the Department last week requesting that percentage reductions, different from those outlined in the comprehensive review of expenditure, should be applied to projects in the Dublin city area. The proposed rationale of the board is to seek to minimise disruption to front-line youth provision and to protect smaller projects. It should be noted that under the board's proposals, most projects would receive a significantly lower reduction. However, the City of Dublin Youth Services Board has also proposed that some larger projects should receive greater reductions. The Department is currently examining the board's proposals. At the request of the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, officials from her Department met representatives of the board last Friday to discuss the proposals. The Department will advise the City of Dublin Youth Services Board of the outcome of its examination shortly.

It should be noted that no cut in the funding provided to support local voluntary youth clubs has been provided for under the comprehensive review of expenditure. This modest funding of more than ¤1 million plays an important role in supporting volunteer-led youth groups and promoting and leveraging valuable voluntary activity in youth work. Some ¤1.5 million in capital funding is being provided in 2013 for youth cafes and youth projects. The Department will announce further details of the application process for the 2013 funding programmes soon. Funding of ¤500,000 was provided in 2012 for the development of a number of youth cafes which had applied for previous youth cafe funding schemes. With respect to future funding provision, the Department has commenced a comprehensive value for money review of youth funding. The outcome of that review is expected by the middle of the 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. Those standards were launched by the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, on Monday of this week.