John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 114: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if dedicated funding has been made available to the Health Service Executive to fund youth cafés under her new recreation policy for teenagers; the amount of funding that has been made available in 2007. [15726/07]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The National Children's Strategy includes a commitment to develop a National Recreation Policy for children between the ages of 12 and 18 years. The preparation of the policy is nearing completion and it is my intention to publish it shortly.

One of the key aspects of the policy is the provision of more recreational facilities and in particular, the establishment of youth cafés, identified by young people as their single biggest need. The policy recognises that youth cafés offer great potential for providing a wide range of developmental, educational and information programmes to young people and that the provision of such services within these settings will require a cross-Departmental and inter-Agency collaborative approach through a formal partnership process.

Individual Government Departments and agencies, as key funding and delivery bodies at national and local level, will continue to retain responsibility for the implementation of actions and measures that fall within the remit of their operational responsibilities. The implementation of the policy is being discussed with the relevant Government Departments and Agencies.