Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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105. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the extent to which his Department continues to support Kildare youth services throughout the county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36776/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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My Department administers a range of funding schemes and programmes to support the provision of youth services to young people throughout the country including those from disadvantaged communities. The funding schemes support national and local youth work provision to some 380,000 young people and involve approximately 1,400 youth work staff in 477 projects and 40,000 volunteers working in youth work services and communities throughout the country. In 2015, funding of €49.9m has been provided to my Department for these schemes. There has been no reduction in the overall allocation for youth services in 2015 which was a key priority for youth organisations. An amount of €488,200 has been allocated for the projects and services under Kildare Youth Services, which operates under Youth Work Ireland.

My Department provides funding to Kildare Youth Services under the Special Projects for Youth Scheme in respect of six local youth projects in Athy, Naas, Leixlip, Newbridge, the Curragh and Kildare town and a Youth Information Centre in Naas. In addition, Kildare Youth Hub, Kildare Town has received approval under the 2013 Capital Scheme for the development of a new youth café facility.

The Deputy may also be interested in a new Youth Employability Initiative which I announced on the publication of the National Youth Strategy 2015 - 2020. The new Youth Employability Initiative is funded under the Dormant Accounts Scheme. It will provide €600,000 in grants to voluntary youth services for programmes that target disadvantaged young people to improve their employability. Full details of the Youth Employability Initiative are available on my Department's website, www.dcya.gov.ie.

I am pleased to tell the Deputy that Budget 2016 has provided an additional €1.1m in current funding to my Department to support the provision of youth services, by the voluntary youth sector. This will bring the allocation for the projects and services throughout the country to €51m in 2016. My Department will shortly commence work in the detailed allocations for local youth services and projects and every effort is being made to notify local projects of their allocation for 2016 in the coming weeks.

An additional €2.25m in capital allocation has also been provided in Budget 2016. In the main, the capital allocation will be used to support smaller scale projects in local youth services such as refurbishments, health and safety works and accessibility projects. Details of this new capital scheme will be advertised early in the new year.