Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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387. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if his Department has undertaken any studies or reviews on the potential impact and revenue implications for his Department of the exiting of Atlantic Philanthropies from grant making in respect of groups that are co-funded by this group and his Department or the Child and Family Agency. [25881/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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For more than a decade through its Prevention and Early Intervention Initiative, The Atlantic Philanthropies, sometimes in conjunction with Government and other organisations, has invested over €127 million in 30 partner agencies and community groups running 52 prevention and early intervention services and programmes across the island of Ireland.

The key initiative co-funded by my Department and The Atlantic Philanthropies is the Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme (2013 - 2017) which builds upon its predecessor, the PEIP programme. The Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme is an innovative prevention and early intervention initiative consisting of committed funding for an area-based approach to helping to improve outcomes for children and thereby impacting on child poverty. The ABC Programme is co-funded by my Department and The Atlantic Philanthropies on a matched basis with €29.7m being provided over the life-cycle of the programme.

The ABC Programme targets investment in evidence-informed interventions to improve the long-term outcomes for children and families living in areas of disadvantage. It aims to break “the cycle of child poverty within areas where it is most deeply entrenched and where children are most disadvantaged, through integrated and effective services and interventions” in the areas of child development, child well-being, parenting and educational disadvantage. 13 Sites were approved for entry into programme and are now operationalising services in their consortia sites.

I am especially interested in the learning yield from the ABC programme and specifically how best we ensure the identification and transfer of this learning into established services and supports for children and young people. With specific regard to this, my Department has established a task-focused group to examine how best to mainstream the learning from the ABC programme in the domains of policy and provision to improve outcomes for children and young people. This Task Group includes representatives from The Atlantic Philanthropies and ABC sites. The Task Group will explore how the mainstreaming of the learning from effective evidence-informed approaches can best be progressed. It is anticipated that the group will provide a succinct discussion paper outlining feasible options relating to the mainstreaming of learning for the consideration of the ABC Interdepartmental Project Team in the last quarter of 2015.

With regard to broader funding provided by The Atlantic Philanthropies, this is a matter for that organisation to consider and I understand that The Atlantic Philanthropies have had specific regard to this issue in their funding provision in recent years.