Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Young Ireland: National Policy Framework for Children and Young People recognises the important role of youth work services in supporting young people to thrive and fully develop their potential. It acknowledges the important ongoing reform programme and further commits to the development of a new Youth Services Action Plan to provide a strategic direction for the delivery of youth services over the lifetime of the Framework.

In the process of developing this work, it was determined that there is a need for broader strategic policy vision to guide the identification of the most impactful actions. In view of this, it is intended that the final document will be a national strategy on youth work services and related non-formal developmental opportunities for young people.

Informed by extensive consultation, work is at an advanced stage in developing this document, which will focus on ensuring we have high-quality, inclusive and accessible youth work services and opportunities that support young people from all backgrounds to fully realise their potential and positively shape their own and our shared future. The new Strategy will be published in the coming months.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Young Ireland: National Policy Framework for Children and Young People recognises the important role of youth work services in supporting young people to thrive and fully develop their potential. In line with this, I have continued to invest significantly in youth services throughout the country so that every young person is given the opportunity to achieve their full potential. From Budget 2020 to Budget 2024, current Exchequer funding for youth services and programmes increased from €61.789 million to €77.95 million, a 26% increase overall. Later this year, Government will publish a new national strategy to further enhance young people’s access to high quality youth work and related developmental opportunities and ensure all delivery partners are working together to deliver for young people. Work is at an advanced stage in respect of this document.

In respect of the Deputy's specific query on multi-annual funding, Exchequer funding for youth services is currently allocated on an annual basis in the Budgetary process. My Department is obliged to adhere to the public sector spending code, and therefore it is not possible to enter into multi-annual grant agreements with the youth organisations funded by my Department. However, in order to support organisations to have greater certainty of funding on a multi-annual basis, the UBU Your Place Your Space scheme, which is the largest scheme funded by my Department with €47million in funding in 2024, operates on a 3 year cycle basis, whereby funded youth services continue to receive funding over a 3 year period, subject to the completion of an annual Renewal form by the services involved. The new Targeted Youth Employment Support Initiative will operate on a similar basis, with a three year funding window for services, with annual renewal of funding within that period.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department provides targeted supports for young people aged 10-24 who are marginalised, vulnerable or disadvantaged by means of the UBU Your Place Your Space scheme, under which €47 million is being allocated in 2024 to support young people to participate youth services in their communities. Under this scheme, service providers are required to report on the engagement of young people on a monthly and quarterly basis, disaggregated by age group and gender, and this information is collected in the form of the Annual Progress Reports which are reviewed by my Department.

Because of the diversity of formats and provision-types provided by organisations supported by my Department, there are challenges in designing a robust system for consistent reporting of participation data. My Department is working with the Education and Training Boards, who are responsible for youth funding at a local level, to design a tool that accurately captures this important information.

In order to facilitate improved data reporting across the youth sector, my Department also intends to implement a digital portal for the reporting and analysis of key data, including reliable quantitative data capturing the participation of young people in services. Considerable work has been undertaken to date on this project.