Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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172. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the way she intends to spend the additional €5.5 million funding allocated for youth work programmes in budget 2017; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30992/16]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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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.

I am pleased to advise the Deputy that Budget 2017 has provided an additional €5.5m in current 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. Following the Budget 2017 announcement, my Department will commence a process with national organisations and local services to identify service development needs for 2017 and to agree the 2017 allocations. Every effort will be made to complete this process as soon as possible.