Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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1167.To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality for an update in relation to the expansion of youth justice and youth diversion measures, noting how many staff are assigned per youth diversion programme; how much funding each youth diversion programme has received; the number of children referred to each youth diversion programme; the number of children accepted into each youth diversion programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter.[35286/24]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, Youth Diversion Projects (YDPs) are community-based, multi-agency youth crime prevention initiatives which primarily seek to divert young people who have been, or are at risk of becoming, involved in anti-social or criminal behaviour. YDPs are run by community-based organisations and are a vital support to the statutory Garda Youth Diversion Programme.

A top priority for my Department is the expansion and deepening of the services offered to young people by the YDPs, which are fully funded by my Department. On average, the YDPs engage with about 4,000 young people across the State in any one year.

In Budget 2024, the funding allocated to Youth Justice Services increased by 10% to €33 million. This will facilitate an increase in the availability of YDP services in the evenings and at the weekends when many young people need them the most, as well as an increase in supports for families, interventions for typically hard-to-reach young people and early interventions for 8-11 year olds who may be at increased risk of becoming engaged in criminal activity.

The current network of 100 YDPs is extensive, but we will continue to develop it further to ensure that every child who needs support is reached. Four new YDPs are in the process of rolling out services (in South Monaghan, Claremorris and district, South and East Co. Wicklow and West Cork (North of Bandon)), with a further two projects (in East Clare and in Thurles and surrounding towns in North Tipperary) planned for introduction later this year. With the roll-out of these projects, full national coverage of the Youth Diversion Project Service will be achieved.

The table at the following link contains the information requested by the Deputy. Please note that my Department does not collect statistics on the numbers of children referred to each YDP, or the number of children accepted into each YDP. Only the numbers of engaged participants are recorded i.e. young people that have been referred, admitted and have engaged. Data for 2023 is currently available, data for 2024 will be available next year. The table can be accessed at the link:

">Youth Diversion Funding

I would also draw the Deputy's attention to the column titled “2024 Full Time Equivalents Funded”. Full-time equivalent (FTE) is a unit of measurement that indicates the workload of an employed person in a way that makes workloads comparable across various contexts. An FTE of 1.0 is equivalent to one full-time worker, while an FTE of 0.5 signals half of a full work load. In many cases there are part time work arrangements and these stats set out the overall number of staff at work in the Youth Diversion Projects in any one month. Exact data on full time workers and part time workers is not readily available, but this measure gives the best indication of the required staffing for each project.