A local TD has brought before the Dáil the issue of acutely low funding for the Laois Offally Educate Together Board (LOETB).
Sinn Féin’s Brian Stanley TD raised the matter of funding for youth services in his constituency, after it emerged LOETB is the lowest funded ETB in Ireland.
“Laois-Offaly has the highest percentage of young people aged between ten and 24 years of age,” Deputy Stanley said.
“However, Laois Offaly ETB have 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.
“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 per person across the 16 education and training boards in the State.”
Figures presented at the time showed that Laois/Offally has a population of ten to 24 year-olds in excess of 36,000 in 2023, yet received far less funding than even those areas with similar populations.
Longford/Westmeath has almost 10,000 less young people than Laois/Offaly, yet received €75,000 more in funding.
Kilkenny/Carlow, meanwhile, has less than 33,000 young people, yet received over one million euro – almost double that of Laois/Offaly.
These figures, however, pale in comparison to the highest funded ETB in the country, Dublin City.
“In 2023, the level of funding per young person between the ages of 10 and 24 in Laois/Offaly was €15.82,” Deputy Stanley said.
“The starkest example of unequal funding was the City of Dublin ETB, where youth services received €160 for every young person aged between ten and 24 in the Dublin City Local Authority.
“Laois-Offaly has had much less funding and far fewer funded projects.
“Between 2002 and 2022, there was an almost 60,000 increase in population in the two counties, but still, we receive less per head of youth population than anywhere else in the country.
“I accept and understand that there are parts of Dublin with the highest needs, but a gap of 1,000% needs to be looked at.”
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