COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, September 09, 2024

QUESTION NO.24

QUESTION: Councillor N. Fennell

To ask the Chief Executive for a break down by tabular format by LEA on funding for youth facilities available to young people in the county. For years 2024, 2023, 2022

REPLY:

The Council provides through our capital and revenue budgets funding for the development, maintenance and programming of a wide range of facilities/activities for children and young people across the county including our network of libraries, regional/neighbourhood parks, community and leisure centres, Civic Theatre, RUA RED, Big Space/Fettercairn Horse Project and Clondalkin Equine Club. It is not possible to provide a full breakdown of funding as these facilities are not exclusively used by children and young people but they do provide or support a wide range of activities to ensure that they are kept active, entertained and educated through the provision of playgrounds/teen spaces, youth clubs, youth cafes, skate parks, sports facilities/playing pitches, youth arts/drama/music, literacy/STEAM programmes, youth outreach and voluntary activities. 

South Dublin Comhairle na nOg (Youth Council) have committed in their work programme for 2024 to map services and activities for young people in community centres and spaces in the County and their findings can be presented and shared with the elected members.

Detailed below is an example of the facilities for children and young people delivered/funded by the Council between 2022-24:

South Dublin Library Services 

All libraries across the county provide facilities specifically aimed at young people as part of overall suite of facilities available in each branch. This includes children’s and young adult spaces and collections. It’s not possible to separate the costs of providing these facilities from the cost of providing library facilities overall, but in the years listed the Council has invested the following in specific facilities aimed at young people through the library service:

• Think Big Space in partnership with Amazon Web Services. This facility has provided workshops in robotics and virtual reality to just under 8,000 children since its launch in May 2022. The facility is managed by Libraries and AWS with rental costs covered by the Council.
• In June 2023, we launched The Loft, which is targeted at teens and provides them with a variety of creative outlets. The Loft is “chill out” space for young people and has pool tables, and will play host to DJ workshops, and open mic and comedy clubs.
• Our Young Adult Collections include both fiction and non-fiction titles, as well as graphic novels. Each year we allocate a percentage of our overall acquisitions budget to the purchase of Young Adult stock. The percentage on young adult fiction p/a is approximately 4%, with another 18% on Children's stock.  

Playground/Teenspace Programme:

Over the past 10 years we have gone from 4 playgrounds to over 40 across the county. We have also constructed outdoor exercise areas and teenspaces in many of our parks which are very popular with young people. 

Since 2022 we have added the following:

Teenspaces (overall figure €560,000):

• Griffeen Valley Park
• Bancroft Park
• Ballycragh Park
• Tymon Limekiln
• Kingswood

New/refurbished playgrounds:

• Kiltalown Park (€150,000)
• Dodder Valley Park- 3 new playgrounds and a play trail (€352,726)
• Whitestown Stream (€120,000)
• Airlie Park x 3 playgrounds (included in overall cost for park)
• Aylesbury playground refurbishment (€40,000)
• Kingswood Playground refurbishment (€28,536)
• Ballycragh Playground refurbishment €20,000)

Exercise/Calisthenics areas:

• Tymon Limekiln (€55,000)
• Clondalkin Park (€55,000)
• Meile An Ri -North Clondalkin (€55,000)
• Knockmitten Park (€55,000)

MUGA's:

• Sean Walsh Park (€70,000)
• Clondalkin Park  (€70,000)
• Rathcoole Park  (€70,000)

BMX/Pump track:

• Dodder Valley Park (€401,186)

Pitches/Artificial Grass Pitches:

• Sean Walsh Park - full-sized 3G soccer pitch which can also be used for rugby pitch with a 6m in-goal area for training and underage matches, GAA training pitch and cross field play 5 aside soccer. (€863,482)

• Airlie Park - full sized 3G GAA which can also be used as 2x full-sized 3G soccer pitch (included in overall cost of park)

Tennis courts/ basketball courts

• Dodder Valley Park- 4 tennis courts (€120,000)
• Airlie Park x 3 courts (included in overall cost for park)
• Beechfield Park – 3 courts (€120,000)

Facilities currently under construction

• Carrigmore Park- Playground and Teenspace (€200,000)
• Saggart Community Centre- Playground (€300,000)
• St Cuthberts Park- 2 playgrounds, 1 MUGA, 1 Teenspace (included in overall cost of park in parks masterplan)
• Jobstown Park- BMX Pumptrack, 2 Playgrounds, 1 Teenspace (included in overall cost of park in parks masterplan)
• Killinarden Park - 2 playgrounds, 1 play trail, skate ramp, teen facilities (included in overall cost of park in parks masterplan)
• Quarryvale Park- 1 Teenspace and 1 playground (included in overall cost of park in parks masterplan)

Community Services

Funding for youth services comes from central government through the DDLETB however, the Council provide funding to community centres and organisations through grant assistance many of which provide services to youth including Foroige/Crosscare.

Foroige

2022 – €20,000 to support a youth café in Tallaght

2023 – €30,000 to support a youth café in Tallaght

2024 - €30,000 to support a youth café in Tallaght

Crosscare

2022 –  €7346.45 Community Activities Fund under LCDC