Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department was established in 2011 and I am happy to supply the Deputy with information relating to the period 2011 to 2024.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department was established in 2011 and I am happy to supply the Deputy with information relating to the period 2011 to 2024.

The annual current funding allocation provided for youth organisations and services under the sectoral programme for children and young people within subhead B06-Youth Organisations and Services (part funded by the national lottery) is set out in the table below.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I was very pleased to secure an additional €1 million in the Budget to support the Targeted Youth Employability Support Initiative (TYESI) in 2024.

The aim of this important scheme is to engage and support harder to reach young people, aged from 15 to 24 years, who are not in employment, education, or training. The focused interventions are intended to provide community-based support to assist young people to attain a level of confidence and agency to engage in a wide range of currently available progression routes into education or employment including return to education through Youthreach, or entering the workforce through Community Employment Schemes and apprenticeships.

The TYESI was first run as a pilot project in 2021. The pilot has been evaluated, and the findings have been incorporated into the new TYESI scheme. The evaluation found that a key value of the TYESI is that is delivered by youth workers in the young people’s community. Local youth workers can develop community linkages and interagency linkages, to provide tailor-made supports to assist each young person in developing their employability skills.

The TYESI is administered at the local level by the sixteen Education and Training Boards. My officials issued the application forms and guidance notes for the Initiative to the ETBs on 9 February. The ETBs are currently advertising the initiative and will manage the application process in their functional areas. I will be announcing the successful applicants before the summer.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The annual breakdown of the current funding allocation per budget line provided by the Department for youth organisations and services under the sectoral programme for children and young people within subhead B06-Youth Organisations and Services (part funded by the national lottery) is set out in the tables at the below link for 2014 to 2024.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Youth workers and volunteers are central to the delivery of youth services to young people. The relationships which young people develop with their youth workers or volunteer leaders can be transformative to a young person's life.

I have committed to developing a workforce development plan for the youth sector, to support the recruitment and retention of staff and volunteers in the sector. My officials are currently carrying out preparatory work on the development of the plan, and will be carrying out consultation with stakeholders, including youth workers and volunteers, youth organisations, young people and providers of youth work training.

It is not possible at this stage to to accurately estimate the cost of a scoping exercise for the workforce development plan, or the cost of implementation of such a plan. The first phase of this exercise will, as indicated, be undertaken by my own officials, within existing resources.