Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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198. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if additional funding will be provided to a service (details supplied) to cover the cost of 1% pay increases under the unwinding of FEMPI in order to ensure that the additional staffing costs do not impact service provision; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9229/18]

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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199. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the estimated cost of providing additional youth service funding to cover the cost of the pay increases resulting from the unwinding of FEMPI; the steps she is taking to ensure this does not impact service provision; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9230/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 198 and 199 together.

City of Dublin Youth Service Board is a statutory body which administers grants to approximately ninety youth projects throughout Dublin city. I am aware that a number of youth workers based in Dublin City and employed in projects administered by the City of Dublin Youth Service Board, are on scales linked to public pay scales and may be eligible for increases under the Haddington Road agreement. In this regard, I was advised by City of Dublin Youth Service Board of a circular issued by the Department of Education and Skills in 2017 and that this circular applies to these youth workers.

It is important to note that the youth workers employed by these services are not public servants and that this local arrangement is unique to services operating in Dublin City. I am also advised that all other youth services operating in Dublin and in the rest of the country are not impacted by the Haddington Road agreement.

Based on the information provided to my Department, the cost of implementing the Haddington Road agreement in these Dublin City services is more than offset by the increases provided to all youth services over the past two years. In 2016, all staff-led youth services were provided with a 2.5% increase in allocation. In 2017, services were provided with a 5% increase in their allocation.

My Department has commenced a process with national organisations and local services, including Ballymun Regional Youth Service, to identify service development needs for 2018 and to finalise the 2018 allocations. The primary purpose of this process to ensure that youth services are sufficiently resourced to meet the needs of young people and particularly those who are at risk of drugs or alcohol misuse, early school leaving, homelessness or who are living in disadvantaged communities. Every effort will be made to complete this process as soon as possible and notify all youth services of their allocation for the year.

In this regard, officials within my Department have recently met with and are continuing to work with officials from the City of Dublin Youth Service Board to identify service needs and emerging trends in Dublin City.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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200. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the extent to which she has adequate funds available to her Department to provide the necessary financial support for youth organisations throughout the country; the degree to which she expects to extend such services in 2018; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9235/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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In 2018, €58.9 m has been allocated in current funding to support the provision of youth services, an increase of €1.5m on 2017. The additional funding is being used for programmes that target disadvantaged young people and to assist national youth organisations in their work to support local voluntary youth services. Funding to staff led youth services has generally been targeted at areas of disadvantage and not in proportion to the youth population of a given area.

The Deputy will be aware that my Department is managing the most significant reform of youth services ever undertaken. This reform will provide an opportunity to identify need and to focus funding on young people most in need of intervention. Last year, I approved funding for the establishment of new youth projects and for the augmentation of a small number of existing youth services to meet new challenges arising from population increases and related identified needs.

Future development and investment in youth services will be informed by the mapping exercise completed last year, which mapped youth service provision across the State. This mapping will assist the Department and the relevant ETB in developing a detailed social demographic profile in terms of both population numbers and deprivation levels. My Department is committed to working with ETBs to identify need and explore ways to address this need where it emerges.