Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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414. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount of funding allocated to Youthreach services in County Kildare for the past four years to date, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27938/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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The Youthreach programme is of great importance to my Department as it provides early school leavers with the knowledge, skills and confidence required to participate fully in society and progress to further education, training and employment.

As the state agency responsible for the FET sector, SOLAS allocates funding to 16 ETBs and other agencies to deliver FET programmes, including Youthreach. As part of the allocation from SOLAS, Kildare and Wicklow ETB (KWETB) provide funding to Youthreach centres across the two counties.

In Co. Kildare, Youthreach services are provided in Leixlip, Naas and Athy. The table below details the funding allocation for Youthreach services in Co. Kildare from 2021 to 2024:

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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415. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of young people availing of Youthreach services, by county, for the past four years to date, in tabular form; the numbers waiting for a Youthreach place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27939/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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The Youthreach programme is of great importance to my Department as it provides early school leavers with the knowledge, skills and confidence required to participate fully in society and progress to further education, training and employment. Typically, the programme provides two years of education at levels 3 and 4 of the National Framework of Qualifications. Youthreach is an important and successful policy response to early school leaving.Youthreach is delivered by Youthreach Centres, under the remit of the Education and Training Boards (ETBs) as well as in Community Training Centres (CTCs), which are onward grant providers.Attached is a table showing the number of young people availing of the Youthreach programme over the past four years, broken down by county as requested by the Deputy.

My Department does not have access to data relating to young people waiting for places on the Youthreach programme. SOLAS has informed my Department that waiting lists for Youthreach are an operational matter for the ETBs and CTCs.