Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 33: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the number of youth cafes she has funded here; the location and amount of funding provided; and if she will fund further such facilities. [16737/09]

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (OMCYA) has not funded youth cafés. The OMCYA has been allocated €750,000 from Dormant Accounts for the development of a structured programme of youth cafes in 2009. Final decisions on the operation of this programme are still under consideration. The focus of the Young People's Facilities and Services Fund (YPFSF) which is now under the remit of the OMCYA is not on the provision of youth cafés. However a number of the facilities built under the YPFSF include a youth café area incorporated within the facility. The objective of the Fund is to attract "at risk" young people in disadvantaged areas into these facilities and activities and divert them away from the dangers of substance abuse.

The Youth Affairs Section that transferred from the Department of Education & Science to the OMCYA as of 1 January, 2009 has also provided funding in recent years to a small number of youth work projects that provide youth cafe facilities for young people.