Step Up is part of the Youth Diversion Programme. The Youth Diversion Programme is co-financed by the Department of Justice and the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) as part of the Operational Programme “Employment, Inclusion, Skills and Training (EIST)”.  The data provided by you on this form will be collected and processed by Step Up in connection with your participation in the Youth Diversion Programme.

Personal data collected in connection with your engagement with Step Up will be shared with the Department of Justice and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science for the purposes of monitoring, evaluating, managing, verifying and auditing the implementation of the Youth Diversion Programme.  The Department of Justice and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science are Joint Data Controllers in respect of the data you provide in this form, and will only process that data in accordance with the GDPR[1] and their legal obligations under the Regulation (EU) 2021/1060, the European Social Fund Plus (EU) Regulation 2021/1057, and related delegated and implementing regulations (henceforth the “ESF+ Regulations”).  The legal basis which underpins the processing of special categories of data for ESF+ purposes is Articles 9(2)(g) and 9(2)(j) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Such data may also, from time to time, be shared with the European Commission, the European Court of Auditors and/or their agents for audit and verification purposes. Data will only be retained by the Joint Data Controllers for the period required to fulfil their obligations under the ESF+ Regulations.

Under the GDPR, Data Subjects, such as participants in ESF+ supported projects, have the right to request from the Data Controller access to their data, the right to request rectification or erasure of their data, the right to request that the processing of such data is restricted, and the right to data portability.  Any such requests should be addressed to fundsadmin-gydp@justice.ie.

[1] General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679

Definitions for the questions

QUESTION 1:

Participants with Disabilities: refers to persons with long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.

There are a number of different, but complementary, definitions of disability used in the State for various official purposes. As the definition of disability for the purposes of ESF+ data returns should be standard across all ESF+ supported activities, the criteria used by the CSO in recent Censuses should be used when deciding if this indicator applies or not to the participant. Therefore it should be considered if the participant has any one of the following long-lasting conditions –

• blindness or a serious vision impairment,
• deafness or a severe hearing impairment,
• a difficulty with basic physical activities such as walking, climbing stairs, reaching, lifting or carrying,
• an intellectual disability,
• a difficulty with learning, remembering or concentrating,
• a psychological or emotional condition, and
• a difficulty with pain, breathing or any other chronic illness or condition.

In addition to the above, a person may be classified as being disabled if they encounter difficulties performing any of the following activities –

• dressing, bathing or getting around inside the home (self-care disability)
• going outside the home alone to shop or visit a doctor’s surgery (going outside the home disability)
• working at a job or business or attending school or college (employment disability)
• participating in other activities, such as leisure or using transport

For the purpose of recording a participant’s indicator data, it is not required to specify or record the particular conditions they have. Instead, it is recommended that participants are asked if they have one of the conditions listed above and, if so, they should be recorded as having a disability.

QUESTION 2 :

Third-Country Nationals: refers to persons who are not a citizen of the European Union including stateless persons and persons with undetermined nationality. The European Union consists of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

QUESTION 3:

Persons with a foreign background: refers to persons one or both of whose parents were born outside the State. In the Irish context, this should be understood to exclude persons one or both of whose parent(s) were born in Northern Ireland.

Care should be taken to ensure to report all persons who either have dual Irish nationality or were born outside the State, are reported as having a foreign background.   

QUESTION 4 :

Minorities (including marginalised communities such as Roma people): refers to persons belonging to a culture or ethnicity that is identifiably distinct from the ethnic majority (i.e. white) and which, in the main, refers to persons who are from ethnic/indigenous minorities such as black, Asian, the Roma or Traveller communities etc. 

QUESTION 5:

Homeless or affected by housing exclusion: relates to a participant’s housing situation. Under the Housing Act 1988 you are considered homeless if one of the following applies to you:

• There is no accommodation available that, in the opinion of the local authority, you and any other person who normally lives with you, can reasonably stay or remain in
• You are living in a hospital, county home, night shelter or other such institution, and you are living there because you have no suitable accommodation
• You are, in the opinion of the Local Authority, unable to provide accommodation from your own resources.

In addition to the definition above there are a variety of definitions of homelessness and housing exclusion in use across Europe, and the ESF MA recommends utilising the ETHOS (European Typology on Homelessness and Housing Exclusion) typology, which refers to four types of homelessness or housing exclusion –

• rooflessness, i.e. living without shelter of any kind or living rough.
• houselessness, i.e. with a place to sleep but temporarily, such as in institutions or shelters. Persons living in “emergency accommodation” would be considered to be “houseless” in this context.
• living in insecure housing, i.e. threatened with housing exclusion due to insecure tenancies, eviction or domestic violence.
• living in inadequate housing, i.e. in caravans on illegal sites, in unfit housing or extreme overcrowding.

Further information on the ETHOS typology can be found here – http://www.feantsa.org/en/toolkit/2005/04/01/ethos-typology-on-homelessness-and-housing-exclusion?bcParent=27

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