Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I agree that youth cafés offer a good model for positive engagement with young people. This is perhaps not surprising as it is a model which was initiated and led by young people themselves. The success of the model is evidence of the huge benefits which can flow from the encouragement of active participation by young people in decision making which my Department sees as one its continuing policy priorities.

As you will be aware as a result of the national youth café funding scheme 2010, jointly operated by my own Department and Pobal, a total of 64 youth café projects received funding to either open a brand new youth café site or to upgrade and improve facilities in existing sites. I am pleased to announce that as a result of that scheme a total of 16 brand new cafés are gradually coming on steam this year and in 2012. I have had the pleasure myself of officially opening some brand new youth cafés in recent months and it is extraordinary to see the real and meaningful difference that such facilities can bring to local communities. In many cases youth cafés are either partly or totally operated by young people themselves which itself helps encourage independence, personal responsibility and indeed entrepreneurial skills in terms of fund-raising and innovative ideas for revenue generation so that the cafés remain financially sustainable for the future. In these difficult economic times I would regard long term financial sustainability as the most important issue in terms of the continued success of the youth café model.

Following the completion of the payments to local projects by Pobal as a result of funds provided by my Department which has been ongoing throughout this year, my Department is currently examining the possibilities of providing funding for a small amount of additional projects who have applied for funding. Due to the current tough fiscal situation however, I regret that I am not in a position at this stage to give any specific new commitments in terms of additional funding being provided in 2012. Given the significant investment to date I believe it may also be timely to evaluate the results of the model generally. My Department will examine cost effective ways to study the impact of youth cafés facilities on local communities, specifically in areas where no such facilities existed previously.