Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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221. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she has considered the need for youth service provision in the Meakstown and Charlestown areas of Dublin 11. [18108/18]

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.

Finglas Youth Resource Centre is funded under my Department’s Young Peoples Facilities and Services Fund. This fund was established by the Government in 1998 to assist in the delivery of preventative strategies in a targeted manner, through the development of youth facilities, including sports and recreational facilities, and to provide services in disadvantaged areas where a significant drug problem exists or has the potential to develop. In 2017 this project received an allocation of €354,134, an increase of 5% over its 2016 allocation.

Finglas Youth Resource Centre also received Local Drug Task Force funding of €82,518 in 2017. The 21 Local Drug Task Force projects provide a range of supports for young people by way of targeted drug prevention and awareness programmes as well as referrals.

My Department recently completed an exercise with Pobal and each Education and Training Board which mapped youth service provision across the State. This mapping exercise will assist my Department and each Education and Training Board in developing a detailed social demographic profile, in terms of both population numbers and deprivation levels, which will inform future developments and investment in youth services.