Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 April 2026
42. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Education and Youth the actions she is taking to strengthen the local youth club grant scheme, as per the commitment in the Programme for Government; the number of clubs, per county, that receive funding in 2026; the number of young people enrolled in clubs, per county; and the number of first time grant applications in 2025 and to date in 2026, per county. [29046/26]
View answerFunding for the Local Youth Club Grant Scheme (LYCGS), a key universal support for volunteer-led youth work and has increased by 32% from €2.1 million in 2020 to almost €2.8 million in 2026.
Funding is distributed by the Educations and Training Boards (ETBs) which administer the scheme at a local level. ETBs are now permitted to allocate up to 10% of their scheme allocation to provide enhanced training and capacity-building supports for club leaders and volunteers. This includes training in first aid, child safeguarding, health and safety, and other skills essential to the safe and effective operation of youth clubs. These supports are particularly valuable for independent, stand-alone clubs.
The scheme has also been strengthened by the introduction the Volunteer Activation Fund - an initiative designed to enhance the recruitment, retention, and support of volunteers who are vital to the delivery of universal youth services. A total of €650,000 was made available in 2024/2025 and increased funding is available to support this initiative in 2026. €850,000 has been allocated to this fund for 2026, and applications are currently being assessed. Recipient youth organisations have focused on initiatives to recruit new volunteers, support and retain existing volunteers and develop essential training materials. These volunteers are an integral component of existing clubs and the creation of new clubs.
Funding for 2026 has been allocated to the sixteen ETBs and the application and award of grants to clubs is currently in process. It is not possible at this stage to provide data on the scheme for 2026 and the data for 2025 for all sixteen ETBs is currently being compiled within the department. Consolidated data from 2024 indicates that over 62,000 young people attended funded clubs and there was an increase of 25 clubs in receipt of funding from 2023 to 2024.
Number of young people attending youth clubs and number of funded youth clubs within each Education and Training Board functional area in 2024
|
ETB |
No of Young People attending Clubs/Groups |
Total no of Clubs/Groups receiving grant funding |
|
Cavan Monaghan |
5,370 |
78 |
|
City of Dublin |
8,039 |
102 |
|
Cork |
10,971 |
165 |
|
Donegal |
4,109 |
66 |
|
Dublin Dun Laoghaire |
5,089 |
102 |
|
Galway Roscommon |
4,772 |
82 |
|
Kerry |
1,477 |
39 |
|
Kildare Wicklow |
2,899 |
70 |
|
Kilkenny Carlow |
1,179 |
32 |
|
Laois Offaly |
1,234 |
34 |
|
Limerick Clare |
3,759 |
73 |
|
Longford Westmeath |
1,404 |
33 |
|
Louth Meath |
3,671 |
90 |
|
Mayo Sligo Leitrim |
3,734 |
65 |
|
Tipperary |
1,201 |
29 |
|
Waterford Wexford |
3,723 |
75 |
|
Total |
62,631 |
1,135 |
