Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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528. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the extent to which her Department continues to interact with youth organisations with particular reference to the need to identify their issues of concern and to offer appropriate assistance; the extent to which this has continued over the past 12 months to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54367/13]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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529. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the issues most commonly brought to her Department’s attention by youth organisations or members of the public in the course of the past two years to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54368/13]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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531. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the extent to which her Department continues to have access to adequate funding for youth support services; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54371/13]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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532. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the extent to which she has been in a position to offer funding for youth support services to the various youth organisations throughout County Kildare in the past twelve months; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54372/13]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 528, 529, 531 and 532 together.

The Youth Affairs Unit of my Department supports the delivery of a range of youth work programmes and services for all young people, including those from disadvantaged communities, by the voluntary youth sector. The funding schemes support national and local youth work provision to some 400,000 young people and involve approximately 1,400 paid staff and 40,000 volunteers working in youth work services and communities throughout the country.

In 2013, €53.498m has been made available for services for young people. This includes capital funding of €1.5m to support projects in the youth services, including new Youth Cafés and €0.250m for the provision of Play and Recreation facilities. This year, it proved possible, in the context of end year savings and efficiencies, to provide additional assistance to over 35 youth projects and organisations to assist them in ensuring their sustainability for the year ahead. Youth Officers of the Education and Training Boards, who have very close links with local youth projects, have been of great assistance to my Department in this process.

With regard to funding for Co. Kildare, €458,220 has been provided to six projects and services in 2013. In addition, I have recently allocated an amount of €50,000 to Kildare Youth Hub, Kildare town towards the cost of developing a youth café facility which will offer a safe environment for young people to ‘hang out’.

Work is underway in my Department on the determination of the 2014 allocations for the youth services. In line with Government policy, my Department, along with all Government departments, has been required to achieve significant savings on schemes and services in line with the reductions set out in the Comprehensive Review of Expenditure (CRE). I am pleased to advise the Deputy that, as part of Budget 2014, I have secured an additional allocation of €1m in current funding to reduce the impact of the CRE savings requirements on the youth services next year. The additional allocation means that the savings requirement in 2014 will be €2m rather than €3m indicated for the youth services in the CRE and the total current funding allocation for youth services will be €49.78m.

Every effort is being made to finalise the 2014 funding allocations promptly so that youth projects and national youth organisations can be advised of their 2014 allocations as soon as possible.

My Department has strong links with youth sector organisations and there is regular interaction with them on a range of issues including matters to do with ensuring quality services to meet young people’s needs and the challenges youth organisations encounter in managing the budgets available to them over the year. The most prominent issues brought to my Department’s attention over the past two years related to the impact of reduced budgets on youth organisations and youth projects throughout the country. The youth organisations also followed closely Ireland’s Presidency of the EU Youth Council of Ministers, in which we prioritised the importance of quality youth services for young people’s social inclusion and the contribution of youth work to the attainment of the goals of the Europe 2020 strategy, particularly for youth employment. The National Youth Council of Ireland partnered my Department in the organisation of the EU youth conference held in Dublin in March. Over 200 young people and policy makers from all the member states discussed issues of concern to youth, including youth unemployment, education and training and access to social services and supports for young people. Youth sector organisations where active participants in the Expert Round Table event which I hosted in June, in Co Kildare, and in which for the first time, youth organisations came together with employer and business representatives to discuss the contribution of youth work to young people's employability and entrepreneurship. My Department continues to work closely with the youth sector on these priority issues in the context of the Government’s plan for the Youth Guarantee.

My Department works collaboratively with the youth sector organisations on important policy initiatives in various fora. The National Youth Work Advisory Committee appointed by me in January 2013 includes representatives of the national youth organisations as well as statutory sector interests. The youth work organisations are making a significant contribution to my Department’s work, through the National Youth Work Advisory Committee which is undertaking preparatory work on the proposed new youth policy strategy for completion next year.

I, and officials of my Department will continue to meet with many youth organisations and groups to try and see how we can work together to ensure the most effective and efficient use of the resources available in order to continue to support the provision of quality and responsive youth services for young people.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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530. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the extent to which she and or her Department continue to monitor the most commonly mentioned issues affecting the general well-being of young persons; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54370/13]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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My Department publishes a biennial State of the Nations Children report which aims to describe the lives of children in Ireland, to track changes over time and to benchmark the progress of children in Ireland relative to other countries. The report focuses specifically on children's outcomes (including health, educational and social, emotional and behavioural), children’s relationships with family and friends and children’s services and supports.

The first “State of the Nation’s Children” report was produced in 2006 and three further publications have issued since then. The report is based on a National Set of Child Well-being Indicators. These indicators were developed in 2005 through a consultative process with multiple stakeholders, including children themselves. The indicator set is comprised of over 50 individual indicators which are reported on using previously published data. It is intended that these indicators will be reviewed and updated. The next State of the Nation’s Children Report is due to be published in 2014.

As well as reporting on the national set of well-being indicators, my Department also manages the “National Longitudinal Study of Children in Ireland” (NLSCI).

The purpose of the research is ‘to study the factors that contribute to or undermine the well-being of children in contemporary Irish families; and through this, contribute to the setting of effective and responsive policies relating to children and to the design of services for children and families’.

The study monitors the development of almost 20,000 children – an infant cohort of approximately 11,100 children aged nine months and a child cohort of 8,570 children aged nine years.

- The infant cohort includes 1 in every 5 children born over the period 1st December 2007 and 30th June 2008.

- The child cohort included around 1 in every 6 nine-year old children in Ireland at the time of the first wave of data collection (which took place from May 2007 and September 2008).

The first phase of the Growing Up in Ireland will conclude in 2014 and it is intended to put in place a new contract to continue monitoring the study children into later life.

My Department is committed to continuing the Growing Up in Ireland Study, to provide high quality data on a whole range of child outcomes, and arrangements are underway to commission a second phase of the study to ensure that this rich data source is continued and built upon.