Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 189: To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the extent if any to which comprehensive evaluation of children and youth support services of a social, economic and psychological nature exist across the socioeconomic spectrum; the degree to which deficiencies in services resulting in vulnerability exist and are scheduled for specific attention; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15768/12]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 192: To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the extent if any to which she and her Department have carried out an evaluation of the requirements in respect of child and youth support services in all areas throughout the country with particular reference to meeting recreational, educational and psychological needs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15772/12]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 189 and 192 together.

The Youth Affairs Unit of my Department provides a range of funding schemes, programmes and supports to the youth sector. Funding of some €56.626m is available in 2012 to support the provision of youth services and programmes to young people throughout the country including those from disadvantaged communities.

The main objectives of the Youth Affairs area are to develop and implement coherent, coordinated and relevant youth policies and strategies to support the youth sector in providing effective non-formal education and developmental opportunities for young people through which they can enhance and develop their personal and social skills and competencies. My Department is currently developing a new youth policy framework and it is my intention that this framework will facilitate and promote co-ordination and cohesion across Departments and services throughout the country which will enable the most effective use of the resources available.

My Department is also developing a new strategy for children and young people. It will build on Our Children - Their Lives, Ireland's first children's strategy which was published in 2000 and it will cover the period from 2012 to 2017.The new children and young people's policy framework is being developed in a holistic way to comprehend the continuum of the life-course from infancy, through early and middle childhood, to adolescence through to early adulthood, in keeping with my Department's responsibilities for children and young people. It will be the overarching framework under which policy and services for children and young people will be developed and implemented in the State.

The views of a wide range of interests including children themselves will shape the development of the children and young people's policy framework over the next six months. It will be informed by the results of a consultation, in 2011, in which almost 67,000 children and young people throughout the country participated; the advice of the National Children's Advisory Council which comprises representatives of a range of organisations, both statutory and non-statutory, that work with children and young people, and the views of the National Children's Strategy Implementation Group which includes nominees of Government departments and state agencies that develop policies and deliver services for children and young people.