Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 February 2026
458. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Education and Youth if she will make a statement on the need for greater supports for young people in Ireland and her plans to allocate additional, targeted funding for same. [13991/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy is aware, I was pleased to announce that arising from Budget 2026, an additional €8 million in current and capital funding has been allocated to support the sustainability and development of youth services. This brings the overall core current and capital funding available to support existing youth services and youth work infrastructure to €94.1 million for 2026, representing a 9.3% increase on the corresponding funding available in 2025.
In 2026, the core current funding allocation of €90.1 million will support existing youth services and youth organisations across both targeted and universal provision for young people. This significant investment contributes directly to sustaining and enhancing participation levels across all youth funding schemes, which now involve over 450,000 young people nationwide.
UBU Your Place Your Space (UBU) is the largest youth services scheme funded by the Department of Education and Youth, targeting young people aged between 10 to 24 who are identified as marginalised, vulnerable and at risk of not flourishing. The UBU scheme provides funding to 258 targeted youth services across the 16 education and training boards (ETBs) that coordinate delivery of funding to the services in their local ETB areas. Funding provided under the UBU funding scheme has increased by over €10 million or 24% over the period 2021 to 2025.
In Budget 2025, €1.2 million was secured for the establishment of ten new UBU services across the country which will provide targeted youth worker-led support for up to an additional 1,000 young people, bringing the total number of services to 258. The services were established at the end of 2025 and are expected to be fully operational in 2026. Over €53 million has been allocated to the UBU scheme in 2026.
The Resilience and Effectiveness (R&E) Initiative is a UBU initiative to support UBU funded organisations to deliver more efficient and comprehensive services to young people, while ensuring that they have sufficient resilience to operate effectively in the medium to long term. Over €1.1 million has been allocated to R&E in 2026.
The R&E initiative has been designed to address specific issues or concerns within individual UBU funded organisations, whether to address ongoing financial challenges or to increase service provision for young people. The process is open to all organisations funded under Strand A of the UBU scheme who meet the eligibility criteria set by the department. The role of each ETB is to identify and prioritise funded organisations within its functional area that should be considered under this initiative. Funded organisations seeking to be awarded an amount under this initiative submit a short form to their relevant ETB demonstrating how they meet the eligibility criteria.
In line with the Government’s wider commitment to end child poverty, the Child Poverty and Well Being Office in the Department of the Taoiseach engaged with Youth Affairs Unit to run a pilot in 2025 to address holiday hunger during the summer months. The pilot targeted young people aged 10 to 18 who were engaged with UBU youth services, with the aim of providing a hot or substantial meal to those attending during June, July and August 2025. The target group consisted of young people who are at risk of not having access to a hot meal or any substantial meal during the official school closure periods. 41 UBU youth services, across the 16 education and training boards (ETBs), took part in the pilot, with over 3,200 young people benefitting from the programme. Following the pilot’s success in 2025, the department intends to run the pilot again this year (2026), subject to sanction, and expression of interest details will be issued to ETBs in due course.
The Targeted Youth Employability Support Initiative (TYESI) is a youth work programme which aims to engage and support young people aged 15 to 24 years who are not in employment, education or training. The focus of this youth work programme is on soft skills and developing these skills in relation to employability. The focused interventions are intended to provide community-based support to assist young people to attain a level of confidence and agency to engage in a wide range of currently available progression routes, programmes or services, for example: Youthreach, Community Training Centres, Community Employment Schemes, Traineeships, Apprenticeships, Pathways to Work and/or progress into employment. The programme focuses on five outcome areas: communication skills, confidence and agency, resilience and determination. The TYESI is delivered by youth organisations, supported by the ETBs. In 2026, over €1.2 million has been allocated to the TYESI, an increase of almost 7%.
Finally, capital funding of €4.0 million will be available to support youth organisations and youth services in 2026, representing a significant increase of €3.5 million compared to the 2025 allocation. This capital funding will enable targeted investment in essential upgrades to youth facilities, equipment, and digital infrastructure in a modern youth work environment to ensure safe, modern and inclusive spaces for young people. All capital investment in the youth sector will be aligned with the National Development Plan framework and forms part of the department’s approach to long-term infrastructure planning and service development. This marks the first time that the youth sector has had clear visibility and certainty regarding capital funding over a multi-year period. Establishing a defined capital envelope under the National Development Plan provides a more stable and predictable basis for planning, allowing youth organisations, education and training boards to prepare projects in a structured and strategic way. It also supports better value for money and more coherent long-term development of youth facilities nationally.
The approach to capital funding distribution and use in the youth sector in 2026 through to the conclusion of the 2030 National Development Plan funding cycle is currently being developed and the department will engage with the sector on same in due course.
Taken together, these measures demonstrate the department’s clear commitment to strengthening supports for young people and expanding targeted, impactful youth services nationwide. These increases in both current and capital funding ensure that young people - particularly those most at risk - have access to high-quality supports that meet their needs.
