Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

557. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the position regarding the area-based childhood programme; and her plans to further expand this successful initiative. [6664/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Area Based Childhood (ABC) 2013-2016 is being implemented by my Department, in partnership with Atlantic Philanthropies who are co-funding the programme's total allocation of €29.7m. The programme will deliver the Programme for Government commitment to adopt an area-based approach to child poverty, drawing on best international practice and existing services to break the cycle of child poverty where it is most deeply entrenched and improve the outcomes for children and young people. The ABC programme will build on and continue much of the work of the Prevention and Early Intervention (PEIP) Programme, which was also implemented by my Department and co-funded by Atlantic Philanthropies.

50 applications to participate in the programme were received. Three of these were from the previous PEIP participants and these were evaluated and approved for entry to the programme earlier this year. The remaining 47 applications have since been evaluated with nine of these being recently approved for entry to the next, design stage of the programme. Applications were evaluated against the criteria set out in the applications process, namely Evidence of Need, Quality of the Proposal, Additionality & Sustainability, and Understanding and Capturing Outcomes, and ranked accordingly.

Proposals approved for design stage:

Ex PEIP:

- Tallaght CDI

- Young Ballymun

- Northside Partnership (Darndale/Moatview/Belcamp)

- Bray

- Ballyfermot/Dublin 10

- Clondalkin

- Dublin Docklands

- Finglas

- Grangegorman/NW Inner City

- Knocknaheeny

- Limerick

- Louth

My Department, in partnership with Atlantic Philanthropies, is currently engaged in supporting successful applicants through the design stage of the programme and will be supported in this process by Pobal and the Centre for Effective Services. An Information event was held in the F2 Centre, Rialto, Dublin on 30 January last. The purpose of the event was to assist new entrants to the programme. Representatives from all the new sites were present at the event.

While some projects are expected to advance to the final approval stage more quickly than others, I hope to see as many as possible of the projects at implementation stage by July 2014.