Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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246. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will ensure that the UBU-Your Place Your Space funding deficit is addressed in order that youth work projects can maintain and grow their level of service provision; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30020/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Since the UBU Your Place Your Space scheme was introduced in 2020, targeted youth funding distributed under this scheme has increased by 28%, from €37.3 million to €47.9 million in 2024. There are 251 youth projects currently funded under UBU.

In addition, my Department has allocated Resilience and Effectiveness funding of €580,480 this year, which provides additional support to UBU-funded organisations who identify needs that match the relevant qualifying criteria. In June 2024, an additional one-off funding of €1.09 million under the Minor Grant Scheme is also being allocated to UBU Your Place Your Space funded projects to support additional activity during the summer holiday period and provide additional programme costs incurred for provision of services to all young people.

My officials have begun work on a review of the UBU Your Place Your Space scheme, which will provide the Department with more comprehensive evidence on the areas that are in need of additional support and inform the policy direction on how best to distribute funding to support young people with identified needs.

A mapping process is currently underway which aims to capture all youth services, both youth worker led and volunteer led. The first stage of the mapping exercise is to map the 251 projects funded under the UBU Your Place Your Space scheme. The interactive map integrates with Census data as well as the Pobal deprivation index to provide evidence on where the biggest growth in young people’s population is located.

This will help to identify gaps in youth service provision and enable my Department and stakeholders to develop proposals to expand youth service provision where necessary. This analysis is necessary to enable the Department to determine how best to direct capital funding over the period ahead.