Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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206. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the reason County Meath has the lowest level of youth funding. [52812/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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As the Deputy is aware 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 and the total youth funding provided by my Department was €58.9m in 2018.

Budget 2019 provided an additional €1.5m in current funding to my Department to support the provision of youth services. This additional funding will be used for programmes that target disadvantaged young people. My Department has commenced a process with national organisations and local services to identify service development needs for 2019 and to finalise the 2019 allocations. Every effort will be made to complete this process as soon as possible.

In 2018, an amount of €143,026 was allocated for the targeted youth projects and services in County Meath, as follows:

The Local Youth Club Grant Scheme supports youth work activities at a local level.  In 2018, I provided an additional 13% in funding for this scheme, bringing the total allocation to €1.79m with an allocation of €111,464 to Louth Meath Education and Training Board.

In addition, in 2017 the Local Youth Club Equipment Scheme provided €6.35m funding nationally which included an allocation of over €431,000 to Louth Meath ETB. The primary focus of this scheme was to assist volunteer led clubs and groups that work with young people in communities throughout the country.

Youth Officers of the Education and Training Boards have an important support role to my Department, in the administration and coordination of youth services at local level. In 2017 I provided additional funding to Louth and Meath Education and Training Board recruit a second youth officer during 2017.

Funding to these staff-led youth services has generally been targeted at areas of disadvantage and not in proportion to the youth population of each county. My Department completed an exercise with Pobal and each Education and Training Board which mapped youth service provision across the State.

Future development and investment in youth services will be informed by this mapping exercise in conjunction with area profiling and needs analysis surveys carried out by Education and Training Boards (ETB) which will develop a detailed social demographic profile in terms of both population numbers and deprivation levels.  My Department is committed to working with Louth and Meath Education and Training Board to identify need and explore ways to address this need where it emerges.