AQW 40676/22-27 Written question to the Minister of Education
To ask the Minister of Education to detail any financial support provided for statutory youth services, in the last five years.
Asked by Eóin Tennyson MLA on 16 February 2026
- Answered
- Written
- Tabled
- 16 February 2026
- Answer due by
- 3 March 2026
- Answered
- 23 February 20267 days after tabling
- Department
- Department of Education
- Priority question
- No
Answer
Funding is allocated from my Department to the Education Authority (EA) to provide youth services either directly or via community and voluntary sector funding grants in order to meet their statutory requirement as set out in Article 37 of The Education and Library Boards (Northern Ireland) Order 1986. The table below details funding provided to EA for youth provision over the last 5 years.
| Year | Community and Voluntary Funding Grants £’000 | EA Direct Youth Services £’000 | Total Resource £’000 |
| 2021/22 | 21,524 | 22,196 | 43,720 |
| 2022/23 | 14,429 | 26,116 | 40,545 |
| 2023/24 [1] | 15,702 | 25,143 | 40,845 |
| 2024/25 | 15,223 | 26,564 | 41,787 |
| 2025/26[2] | 14,897 | 28,120 | 43,017 |
[1] Updated figure to AQW 678/22-27 as the financial year had not completed at the time the previous figure was provided.
[2] Most up to date figures provided as year-end not available
The total resource also includes funding provided by other Departments for specific programmes.
Current indications suggest Education is facing a resource funding gap of c£0.8 billion in 2026-27, increasing to over £1.15 billion in 2028-29. Therefore, it is unlikely that my department can offer any increase to the youth budget.