Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 December 2025
442. Deputy Ryan O'Meara asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to establish a specific budget for capital works for community training centres to apply directly to, considering the budget constraints on ETBs across the country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [72610/25]
View answerCommunity Training Centres, or CTC's, were established in 1977 as Community Training Workshops to support young, unemployed people aged between 16 and 25. Since 1988, they have been delivering the Youthreach programme. There are 31 CTC's throughout the country who are grant-funded by the Education and Training Boards (ETB's) to deliver the Youthreach programme. CTC's are non-profit companies with their own independent Boards of Directors who are responsible for governance and the employment of their staff.
CTC's operate from premises with a variety of ownership types including - owned by an ETB, a CTC Trust, or a private landlord. Where the premises is owned by an ETB, all capital funding programmes are open for use in CTC's. Where ownership is external to an ETB, some capital requirements can be considered by ETB's under the requirements pertaining to onward grantees under programme costs.
The relationships between ETB's and CTC's are managed within the parameters of the Department of Public Expenditure’s (DPER) Circular 13 of 2014 titled “Management of and Accountability for Grants from Exchequer Funds”. This circular guides the management, accountability, and reporting of public funds allocated through grants. It applies to all bodies receiving such grants, including agencies, charities, and other entities. My Department has no current plans to establish a specific budget for capital works for CTC's.
