State fails to meet spending target to develop youth plan

THE Government has failed to meet its spending plans to develop services for young people, the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) said last night.

Youth Affairs Minister Síle de Valera published a five year €35 million National Youth Work Development plan three months ago.

But NYCI expressed anger that an increase of just 1% - to €30.8 million - was given to youth organisations for their activities next year in the spending Estimates published on Thursday.

Council president Kevin Hickey said they will consider non-participation in EU presidency activities as a result of the small increase. NYCI had called for a €5 million spending rise for the youth sector next year, to meet their running costs alone.

“Education Minister Noel Dempsey continues to ignore the valuable contribution being made by youth workers throughout the country,” said Mr Hickey.

“The minister has let the entire youth sector down and we are demanding a meeting with him at the earliest possible opportunity,” the NYCI president said.

He has called an emergency meeting of the council’s board to consider their response to the Estimates, which will include reviewing their participation in EU presidency activities next year.

“It would appear that funding for EU presidency activities in the education budget is more important than funding for the non-formal education sector,” he said.

The plan aims to help all young people realise their full potential and become active participants in society. The funding needed to implement the plan would go towards the expansion of a grants scheme for youth clubs, appointing an Assessor of Youth Work and other activities.

Fine Gael deputy education spokesperson David Stanton said money invested now in youth organisations could yield massive savings in the future.

“A lot of the anti-social activity associated with drink and drugs is happening because the youth sector has been neglected, and we are continuing to build new communities with no services for young people,” he said.

“The Government passed the Youth Work Act two years ago to deal with this issue but it’s dead in the water because of a starvation of funding,” Mr Stanton said.