Written answers

Tuesday, 10 December 2013

Department of Children and Youth Affairs

Child Poverty

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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460. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the reason an application from a group (details supplied) was not put forward to the design stage for the ABC programme - area based response to child poverty funding; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52877/13]

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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461. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the reason the list of successful applicants approved for design stage as part of the ABC programme - area based response to child poverty funding does not include rural areas; her plans for rural children and their families; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52878/13]

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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462. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the reason a county (details supplied) was not considered one of the most disadvantaged areas when the proposals for the ABC programme were short-listed for design stage; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52879/13]

Photo of Frances FitzgeraldFrances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 460 to 462, inclusive, together.

On 27 November last, with my colleague the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Mr. Eamon Gilmore T.D., I announced that an additional nine areas have been selected to enter the design stage of the Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme 2013-2016, in line with a key Programme for Government commitment.

This brings the total number of areas that will participate in the ABC programme to 13, as three existing projects which participated in a forerunner Prevention and Early Intervention Programme (PEIP) in Tallaght, Ballymun and Darndale were approved for entry earlier this year. In addition, a further project, linked to the existing ‘Preparing for Life’ project in Darndale, is also being included.

The evaluation process was undertaken by a Working Group of the Project Team which was set up in February of this year to oversee the implementation of the new programme. The Project Team is chaired by my Department and includes representatives from seven other Government Departments, our co-funders The Atlantic Philanthropies as well as two organisations, Pobal and the Centre for Effective Services, which have been designated to manage the programme on behalf of my Department.

The application and evaluation process was concerned with ensuring that the ABC Programme focused on disadvantaged areas whether rural or urban. The term "area" was defined broadly as ‘A geographical territory, in which the resident population identifies with each other as a community on the basis of natural boundaries, common history or experience or other factors .'. This was intended to encourage consortia from a wide range of areas to apply to the new programme.

Applications had to prove that children in their target area were particularly disadvantaged. The highest ranking criterion included in the application guidelines was Evidence of Need. It was concerned with high levels of poor outcomes for children in the target areas. 40% of the overall scoring weight was assigned to this criterion. The other criteria were Quality of the Proposal (30% of overall scoring weight), Additionality & Sustainability (20% of the overall scoring weight) and Understanding and Capturing Outcomes (10% of overall scoring weight).

50 applications were received from consortia wishing to participate in the Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme, including three from the existing PEIP participants which were evaluated first and approved for entry to the programme earlier this year. The remaining 47 proposals were then evaluated against the programme criteria and nine were selected. These did not include the application referred to by the Deputy as it did not score sufficiently highly against the programme criteria to be invited to proceed at this point to the next stage of development and design work. With 50 proposals received from among the most disadvantaged areas in the State, it was a very competitive process.

I would like to thank the Donegal consortium for its application to participate in the ABC programme and for its commitment to evidence-based programmes and early intervention and prevention services for children and families.

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