Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
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17. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if he will provide Kerry Diocesan Youth Service with the necessary funding to further develop its comprehensive work programme for 2016 and with the capital funding to progress its extensive facilities throughout County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42677/15]

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.

I am pleased to advise the Deputy that Budget 2016 has provided an additional €1.1m in current youth funding to my Department to support the provision of youth services. This additional funding will be used for programmes that target disadvantaged young people and to assist national youth organisations in their work to support local voluntary youth services.

An additional €2.25m in capital funding has also been allocated to my Department in Budget 2016. In the main, this funding will be used to support smaller scale projects in local youth services, such as refurbishments, health and safety works, and accessibility improvements.

Kerry Diocesan Youth Service provides a wide range of services for children, young people and their families throughout County Kerry. It receives funding from a number of statutory bodies including my Department for these services. My Department provides funding to Kerry Diocesan Youth Service for youth services under the Special Projects for Youth scheme which supports projects which target young people who are disadvantaged including young Travellers and young people who are out of school and at risk of drugs, substance abuse or homelessness. Funding is also provided for a youth information centre in Tralee. In 2015, funding of €429,285 has been allocated to Kerry Diocesan Youth Service for these youth services.

In addition, a further allocation of €32,462 is being provided to Kerry Diocesan Youth Service to support services in Killarney, Listowel and Castleisland and to meet end-year budgetary commitments in 2015.

Kerry Diocesan Youth Service has recently made a submission to my Department in relation to a proposal to develop a European Youth Centre that would meet the quality criteria set out by the Council of Europe. A meeting is being arranged between the Kerry Diocesan Youth Service project organisers and officials of my Department to discuss the proposal and to identify the options that may be available to Kerry Diocesan Youth Service to progress this ambitious project, having regard to the resources that are available to my Department at this time.