Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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1172. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the status of the operation of the area based childhood programme; the projects awarded funding under this scheme, by amount awarded and county; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34695/17]

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 the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) in conjunction with The Atlantic Philanthropies (Atlantic). The ABC Programme commenced in 2013 and was designed as a time-bound, co-funding agreement in the amount of €29.7 million to 2017. In late 2016, my Department secured additional funding to ensure that all 13 existing ABC sites are to remain in contract to the end of December 2017. Addendums to contracts have been issued to sites to facilitate these extensions.

There are 13 sites across Ireland participating in the ABC Programme. Eight of these are based in Dublin: CDI Tallaght, Preparing for Life; Youngballymun, Clondalkin Blueskies Initiative, Better Finglas, Dublin Docklands and East Inner City (NCI); Grangegorman and Ballyfermot. The remaining five sites are located in Cork; Louth; Wicklow, Limerick and the Midlands (Laois/Offaly and Longford/Westmeath). The Midlands ABC Programme is funded through the Northside Partnership/Preparing for Life programme.

The table below shows the total agreed grant allocations under the ABC Programme to the end of December 2017. All sites are currently in contract and are operating according to their agreed budgets for 2017.

It is the intention of my Department to seek additional funding in this year’s estimates process, to extend the ABC Programme to the end of August 2018. 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, in order to achieve our shared goal of improving the lives of children and families throughout Ireland.