2648. Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the status of the roll-out of the Ability programme; the projects that have received funding through the programme; if she will provide a description of each; the amount of funding provided to the programme to date in 2019; the provision of funding to each project; if there is a waiting list of projects seeking funding; the estimated cost of increasing funding by 20%; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32875/19]

2650. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing funding to the ability programme by 20%. [33885/19]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 2648 and 2650 together.

Ability is a pre-activation programme for young people with disabilities. The funding for this programme will amount to around €16 million over a three year period and is being provided jointly under the EU's ESF Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning (PEIL) Operational Programme, 2014-2020 and the Irish Exchequer. The programme will support over 2,600 young people with disabilities aged between 15–29 years of age. Pobal have been contracted by the Department to manage the programme.

The aim of the Ability Programme is to help bring young people with disabilities who are not work-ready closer to the labour market through engagement in training and personal development activities, which would be followed by an incremental exposure to work. The programme is being delivered by 27 community and voluntary groups from around the country, selected on foot of a competitive process. As the total funding available has been allocated to these 27 groups, there is no waiting list of projects for further funding on the current programme.

The projects being funded have been designed to assist young people in their transition from school to further education and employment. This will be undertaken using person-centred, case management approaches that support participants to achieve their desired employment goals.

The projects have commenced delivering their services for the young people they have identified. A programme evaluation, aimed at evaluating the extent to which the programme has met its stated policy objectives, is being undertaken. A contractor (Quality Matters) has been appointed by Pobal to undertake this work. This will include an interim review. Pobal have delivered a number of training workshops to support the organisations in terms of the monitoring and reporting requirements of their projects, with further events to be held as needed. In addition, Pobal have rolled out a bespoke IT based CRM system to give a more up to date position of what is happening on the ground.

A full list of the 27 projects being funded, their funding amounts and associated activities are presented in tabular form.

To date, €8.8 million has been provided to fund the Ability programme. This includes the drawdown of funding to date by the 27 successful organisations for Year 1 of the programme (1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019) and 70% of Year 2 (1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020). A service fee to Pobal for the development of the programme including IT development from the initial call for applications in late 2017 and for the on-going management of the Programme is also included in this figure.

The estimated extra cost of increasing funding for the Ability programme by 20% would be €3.2 million, however, it should be noted that this programme is jointly funded by the EU and the Irish Exchequer.

I hope this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.