Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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52. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the contingency plans available to fund an organisation (details supplied) if her Department's line of funding is not restored before 30 June 2018; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18896/18]

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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386. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her plans to fund an organisation (details supplied) should it be unable to address its administrative and governance issues before its funding ceases in June 2018; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18930/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 52 and 386 together.

Scouting Ireland is partly funded by my Department under the Youth Service Grant Scheme. The funding provided under this scheme is contingent on organisations meeting a range of governance requirements. This includes its commitment to and compliance with its legal requirements in the area of child protection as set out in the Children First Act 2015 and the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012 and 2016.

I have a duty of care regarding the public funding provided by my Department and I must be satisfied that an organisation’s governance standards are up to a required level before I can consider the restoration of public funding.

It is a matter for Scouting Ireland to examine alternative sources of funding in the absence of funding provided my Department under the Youth Service Grant Scheme.

My Department also provides funding to local scout groups in the form of small grants under the Youth Club Grant Scheme which is administered by the sixteen Education and Training Boards. This grant funding is still available to scouting groups at a local level.