Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this Commencement matter on behalf of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone. I thank the Senator. I will read the written response before responding to a few points. The Senator spoke about drugs and I will contribute on that issue.

As the Senator is aware, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs was established in 2011. This Department, along with all Departments, was required to deliver substantial savings on all funding programmes in line with the comprehensive review of expenditure 2012-14. The Department sought to ensure that front-line youth services, particularly those for the most vulnerable young people, were protected as far as possible from the impact of the reduction in funding.

Established in 1999, Ballymun Regional Youth Resource is a youth work organisation with special emphasis on young people at risk of drug misuse. The centre-based youth work has a strong focus on developmental group activities and the provision of youth work training and practical supports. Poppintree Youth Project supports the personal, interpersonal, social and analytical development of young people. The project develops programmes which include recreational activities, sports and adventure, creative arts and skills development.

In recent years, funding for the provision of youth services has been increased on an annual basis. In 2011, Ballymun Regional Youth Resource and Poppintree Youth Project received a combined total of €539,104 in youth funding from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. In 2018, these services received youth funding with a combined total of €1,442,794. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs completed an exercise with Pobal and each of the 16 education and training boards which mapped youth service provision across the State. This mapping exercise will assist the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and each education and training board in developing a detailed social demographic profile in terms of both population numbers and deprivation levels and will inform future development and investment in youth services. For 2019, an extra €1.5 million has been allocated in current funding to support the provision of youth services, which brought the total current youth funding available to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs to more than €60 million.

The additional funding is being used for programmes that target disadvantaged young people. The Department has commenced a process to identify service development needs for 2019 and to finalise the 2019 youth funding allocations. The primary purpose of this process is to ensure that youth services are sufficiently resourced to meet the needs of young people, particularly those who are at risk of drugs or alcohol misuse, early school leaving and homelessness or who are living in disadvantaged communities. In this regard, officials in the Department are awaiting the return of completed funding renewal applications on behalf of youth projects throughout the country which are due to be submitted by 21 December 2018. On receipt of these completed renewal applications, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs will be in a position to finalise the funding allocation which will be provided for each youth project in 2019, having regard to the overall budgetary position.

I will address the Senator's other comments when I come back in.