Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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309. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the amount of funding that will be allocated to the area based childhood, ABC, programme in 2019. [43139/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The ABC Programme is a prevention and early intervention initiative, targeting investment in effective services to improve the outcomes for children and families living in areas of disadvantage, established in 2013.

A key purpose of the ABC programme is to identify the learning across the sites, and transfer this learning into existing and established services. To this end, and in line with current Programme for Government commitments, following consultations with Tusla, and other key stakeholders, including representatives of the ABC Programme managers, the decision was taken to transfer the current ABC Programme to Tusla, from September 2018.

This transition will include the alignment of the programme with the agency’s Prevention, Partnership and Family Support (PPFS) Programme, reinforcement and enhancement of Tusla's Prevention and Early Intervention work, as well as create greater opportunities for mainstreaming effective and innovative programmes and interventions. A budget of €9.5m has been secured by my Department to continue the delivery of the ABC programmes as part of Tusla's PPFS programme in 2019.