Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as ucht fanacht le haghaidh na ceiste seo.

I raise an issue on behalf of Youth Work Ireland in Galway. The voluntary board of Youth Work Ireland Galway met on Wednesday, 27 February, and the directors were deeply shocked that the allocations from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs were being cut retrospectively by 10% to 1 January 2013. They had based their budgets on a 6.5% cut. Maintaining service provision on a cut of 6.5%, it was already proofing difficult for them to implement without funding raising, but the direct result was having a compounded effect.

In addition, they also want to find out the rationale for removing the administration of their funding from Youth Work Ireland national office to a local Dublin VEC organisation, the City of Dublin Youth Service Board. This, according to them, is the same organisation responsible for administering student grants through SUSI - we know what SUSI has got up to over the past couple of months. Throughout most of 2012, they were led to believe that if a transfer from Youth Work Ireland were to happen it would be to the local VEC, the Galway city or county VEC.

The impact of the 10% cut in funding in Youth Work Ireland Galway will be at least one addition to the dole queue, according to themselves. While one more unemployed person may not seem significant, the loss to the service would be the removal of supports to 12 voluntary youth clubs, 153 youth leaders, 464 young people as well as the only child protection awareness trainer in Youth Work Ireland Galway. The provision of youth club supports is core to the service Youth Work Ireland Galway gives and the Minister of State can imagine how strongly the board feels that it is no longer in a position to deliver this service. In addition, given the abolition of the redundancy rebate on 1 January 2013, it is a significant cost to a charitable organisation such as this. The Minister of State will understand their sense of frustration.

I note that, apparently, the cut of 10% had been known previously but it was not communicated to Youth Work Ireland Galway by the City of Dublin Youth Service Board. They want to know why this was not communicated previously. If, for example, the funding mechanism had transferred to a local VEC, the method of making cuts might have been quite different and might have been made in a manner more suitable to the type of work done by this important organisation.

Youth Work Ireland Galway is a voluntary organisation that works with young people in Galway city and county and has done so since the 1970s. It grew out of the youth club movement. We just had a debate on LGBT rights and I note that one of the organisations that Youth Work Ireland Galway supports is the shOUT! LGBT youth group. It also supports many other important youth groups.

It is a most important question. My party would like to see continued support for these youth groups. We would be concerned, not only that this cut been brought in a retrospective manner which makes it difficult for such organisations to budget but that there are also threats that perhaps more cuts are coming down the line. Perhaps the Minister of State can allay our fears here tonight and explain why this change has happened in such a manner.

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am taking the debate on behalf of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Fitzgerald, and I thank the Senator for raising it.

We are conscious of the considerable benefits that can accrue to young people from involvement in youth work, and the benefits for society as a whole. Youth projects and youth organisations present valuable opportunities for the social and personal development of young people. In 2013, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs will provide some ¤53.2 million to support the delivery of a range of youth work programmes and youth services, delivered to some 400,000 young people by over 1,400 youth work personnel, who, in turn, support a large volunteer base of 40,000. 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 in so far as possible of front-line programmes and services, including those provided to young people in disadvantaged communities.

The comprehensive review of expenditure, CRE, published in December 2011, set out the savings required from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in each of 2012, 2013 and 2014. The CRE contains a detailed seven-page chapter outlining savings required from youth work funding. The CRE clearly indicated a 10% saving requirement in 2013, with a lesser saving in 2014. Notwithstanding these savings, I understand that funding of ¤129,481 is being allocated to Youth Work Ireland projects in Tuam, Loughrea and east Galway in 2013 under the special projects for youth scheme with a further ¤49,001 being provided for the Youth Information Centre in Ballinasloe.

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs has been examining the scope for improving administrative arrangements for the financial management of the funding for projects to achieve greater efficiency and standardisation. This includes, from this year, affording grant-administering bodies the flexibility to manage and re­allocate funding across the various existing separate funding streams so as to better manage savings locally and to facilitate youth service providers to refocus provision to ensure it meets local needs.

In addition, the Department has sought to rationalise the number of grant-administering bodies. As part of this, the City of Dublin Youth Service Board, CDYSB, was appointed to carry out financial management tasks related to the administering of allocated funding for a number of projects whose funding has previously been administered directly by six national organisations, including Youth Work Ireland.

It should also be noted that under the comprehensive review of expenditure, there has been no cut to the funding being provided to support local voluntary youth clubs. This modest funding, in excess of ¤1 million, plays an important role in supporting volunteer-led youth groups and in promoting and leveraging valuable voluntary activity in youth work.

With respect to future funding provision, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs has commenced a formal and comprehensive value for money review of youth funding and this is expected to report later this year. In addition, the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, yesterday announced the opening of applications for a new ¤1 million youth cafe funding scheme. 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.

Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

In the correspondence I received, Youth Work Ireland Galway disputes the figure of a 10% cut indicated in the comprehensive review of expenditure. Youth Work Ireland Galway stated it had worked out the figure was 6.5% figure. It was stated that discretion is given to the City of Dublin Youth Service Board, which allocates the funding, but it has chosen to apply a 10% cut across the board, which may not be the best for the Galway-based organisation. I ask the Minister of State to bring back to the Minister that there should be some form of consultation with the Galway organisation to see whether the cuts can be implemented in another way which would not put the job or services in jeopardy.

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Sometimes what happens - the Senator probably realises this himself - and I find it particularly with regard to disability services, is that somehow or other organisations come to a notional view themselves what a cut will be. It seems very obvious to me that the background information clearly states a flat 10% saving requirement would be applied across all funding lines in 2013. The comprehensive review of expenditure nowhere references a 6.5% saving. As the Senator correctly pointed out, in 2012 savings of either 5% or 10% were required from various schemes. This would subsequently average out at 6.5% and perhaps this is from where the misinformation came. This can sometimes happen. I will most definitely bring the Senator's remarks to the Minister.