Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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811. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the status of the evaluation of the youth employability initiative; when she expects to receive the report of the evaluation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18087/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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Last year, I announced details of the €600,000 Youth Employability Initiative which is funded under the Dormant Accounts scheme. Under the Initiative 28 youth projects have received grants to support innovative programmes that target disadvantaged young people who are most at risk of unemployment and who are not in education, employment or training. The programmes aimed to build skills that will enhance their employability and over 1,000 young people aged 15 to 24 years across the country have benefited.

My Department has set up a Forum with the successful projects to share experiences and knowledge and to gather and share the lessons from this initiative to inform future policy in this area. Three events have taken place to date, in this regard, which were well attended and positively evaluated by those in attendance. The Initiative is being evaluated by the Centre for Effective Services and I expect to receive the report of the evaluation by June 2017.