Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)

I am raising the very important issue of funding for youth services across Laois and Offaly. Funding for youth services comes through the local education and training board. Laois and Offaly Education and Training Board has not been receiving its fair share of it. Laois-Offaly has the highest percentage of young people aged between ten and 24 years of age. The 2022 census verified this. Based on what I see locally, if a census were taken today, two years later, it would show that it has increased further. Laois and Offaly ETB has consistently received the lowest level of youth services funding compared with the other 15 ETBs. The total funding for Laois-Offaly ETB youth services in 2021 was €427,000, almost €300,000 less than the second lowest region which received €706,000. At the time this equated to €13.68 per person aged between ten and 24. That is a very small amount of money and considerably less than the average in that year, which was €43.84 across the 16 education and training boards in the State.

It has not stopped at that because last year, in 2023, the level of funding per young person between the ages of ten and 24 in Laois-Offaly was €15.82. Those figures can be tracked. The figures also show that in the two years since 2022, Laois-Offaly has had the lowest number of special youth projects under the UBU scheme, with four in total in Laois-Offaly, two in each county. That can be compared with other counties which had seven or eight and in some counties far more than that. Laois-Offaly has had much less funding and far fewer funded projects.

The population of Laois-Offaly has increased dramatically, as it has across the State. Between 2002 and 2022, there was an almost 60,000 increase in population in the two counties. The population in Laois in particular shows a sharp upward line on the graph. The last census in Laois showed that there are almost 92,000 people and that has increased dramatically in the last two years. The same is true in Offaly, which had a 6.6% increase in population. The increase in Laois was 8.5%. The population is increasing and with all those young families, there is an increase in the young population. I cannot understand why the level of funding given by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to the Laois and Offaly ETB region is less per head of population than anywhere else in the country, particularly per head of youth population.

We have a very progressive and active ETB. I used to be on its forerunner, the old VEC in Laois and Offaly, which did good work. The ETB is providing a huge number of services right across the educational range. What is happening and why is this? What will the Minister do about it?

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