Youth Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-29
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Thomas Byrne (FF), Meath East

I thank Deputy Cummins for raising this matter. The Minister for Education and Youth has asked me to set out the position with regard to youth work provision and the funding supports available. Supporting youth services and youth work is an absolute priority for the Department of Education and Youth. The Department is committed to ensuring that young people in Ballyfermot and everywhere else in the country have access to valuable resources and opportunities that enable them to thrive.
The UBU, Your Place Your Space, scheme is the Department’s largest funded youth scheme targeting young people aged between ten and 24 years who are identified as marginalised, vulnerable and at risk of not flourishing. It delivers evidence-informed interventions that promote soft skills, confidence, and progression into education, training or employment, and provides the foundation for local youth organisations to deliver tailored supports that meet the needs of their communities.
A budget of €50.7 million was allocated under the UBU scheme in 2025, representing a 4.5% increase on budget 2024. Over €17 million of that budget was allocated to City of Dublin Education and Training Board, CDETB, in its capacity as a grant administering body of the UBU scheme. In 2025, the Department allocated over €623,000 to Ballyfermot Youth Service under the UBU scheme to sustain core youth services, ensuring consistent support for young people. This represents a 4.5% increase on the previous year. Ballyfermot Youth Service caters to a wide range of young people and provides a diverse set of programmes, including non-formal education programmes, drop-in information sessions, music and arts programmes and access to the Erasmus+ programme. As the Deputy outlined, the work of Ballyfermot Youth Service empowers young people to make positive decisions around their life choices and to meet their needs by providing appropriate social, personal and development programmes.
In addition, the Department allocated approximately €40,000 to Ballyfermot Youth Service in resilience and effectiveness funding. The service also received over €28,000 in 2025 as part of the summer holiday meals pilot programme, which supported the provision of meals to young people during the summer period. Further funding was allocated to Ballyfermot Youth Service under the local youth club grant scheme. Although the 2025 local youth club grant scheme annual reports have not yet been received by the Department, in 2024 Ballyfermot Youth Service received €4,000 in funding under this particular heading.
Under the Estimates for the Department of Education and Youth, the youth affairs unit has been allocated an increase of €8 million in current and capital expenditure. While the high-level allocations are confirmed, a specific timeline for the release of the final detailed breakdown of the youth affairs schemes and programmes is not yet available. Work is continuing within the Department to finalise these allocations and they will be issued as soon as possible. There may well be funding from other Government Departments that Ballyfermot Youth Service could avail of. The Deputy can be assured that the Government values the work that is done by the service. We are eager to continue to fund it as best we can because we know that the work being done there is highly valuable.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:34+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-29