Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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48. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the discussions that have taken place to ensure that the area based childhood programme can continue to support families in the most vulnerable communities; if she will continue to provide the necessary funding beyond that which has been allocated for 2017; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15136/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme is a joint prevention and early intervention initiative led by my Department. It was designed as a time bound co-funding arrangement in conjunction with The Atlantic Philanthropies, with resources of €29.7m from 2013 to 2017. The aim of the ABC Programme is to test and evaluate prevention and early intervention approaches to improve outcomes for children and families living in poverty in 13 areas of disadvantage.

All sites are currently in contract for 2017 and operating according to their agreed budgets for 2017. Due to contractual arrangements, each of the existing 13 sites is scheduled to come to the end of their contracts at various points throughout 2017.

My department secured an additional €4.5million in Budget 2016 to extend all of the existing ABC Programmes to the end of December 2017, bringing the total investment to €34.2 million. This recognises that sites being granted an extension to their original contract may require additional funding.

To ascertain the level of funding that may be required by each site in this regard, my Department requested that the ABC Programme Managers provide the Department with revised financial projections and information on the cyclical nature (including costs) of the various interventions/programmes implemented by each Area.

ABC sites offer several programmes that run along academic year calendars. Bearing this in mind, my Department is putting in place arrangements to support sites to offer programmes to end August 2018 and it is the intention to seek further funding in the 2017 estimates process to facilitate this. A communication was sent at the beginning of March to the ABC site managers, outlining these arrangements.

This extension brings the existing programme closer in line with the expected timeline for delivery of the national evaluation report in 2018. We will utilise the learning from the programme and the findings from the national evaluation to inform the design of prevention and early intervention initiatives that comprehend the Programme for Government commitments.

I look forward to the continued engagement of all ABC sites with my department in 2017 as we work towards the implementation of quality prevention and early intervention initiatives in order to achieve our shared goal of improving the lives of children and families throughout Ireland.