I thank the Minister of State for being here. This is not meant disrespectfully to him but I regret that the senior Minister is not here. This is a practice that I do not think is brilliant. Again, I thank the Minister of State for being here but it is not good practice for senior Ministers to never be in the House to take their Topical Issues, which frequently is my experience. Some 33% of the population of Balbriggan is aged 17 years or under. We call it the youngest town in Ireland because the facts back us up. It is a town that is blessed, and I want to say blessed, with a very vibrant, young population. A report was conducted recently on the spaces and youth services in Balbriggan and young people themselves had an opportunity to tell us what they were thinking and what they needed. What they say they need and what they want are safe spaces, places where they can be and hang out. Not every young person plays sport. There is not always something but they do not want to hang around either. They want to have somewhere to be where they can be safe and where they can hang out. I was in Foróige in Balbriggan recently for Oíche na hÓige and I spoke to Aisling O'Connell, Antoinette Kelly and Amanda Cullen about the work they are doing. I am a big fan of the work done by Foróige workers, as I sure the Minister of State is himself. I have seen what they do and the real difference they make in people's lives. I cannot understand why, in the youngest town in Ireland, funding for youth work and youth services is going entirely in the wrong direction. For example, we recently lost three youth workers. That is 100 to 150 young people who need services and support who will not now be in a position to get it. The funding for youth work in Dublin is barely meeting the baseline for existing levels of service. When you have a growing population, even maintaining existing levels of service means you are going to fall behind. The Government is not even doing that. That issue about underfunding for youth work is more acutely felt in towns like Balbriggan where we have a large population of young people. Looking at the NDP, we see that youth services could, at the very best, be described as the poor relation. We say on the one hand that we do not want young people hanging around. If they hang around too much we tell them that is causing antisocial behaviour. They get lectured eight days a week by people like me and, with no disrespect to the Minister of State, like him about spending too much time on screens, but if we are not giving them a viable option, what other choice do they have? I recently had two graduates of the Leadership for Life programme run by Foróige doing work experience in my office and they blew me away. When I spoke to them, a lot of the confidence they had and the capacity to come into a place like this to spend a couple of days working came from the input from the people in Foróige. I am concerned that, in a town like Balbriggan, Foróige workers needs permanent places to be. They need multi-annual funding and they need to know when they start a programme, like the UBU programme that they can keep running it. Amanda needs to know, when she starts the UBU programme, that she is going to be able to run it again and keep running it. That requires a dedicated funding stream. Will the Minister of State please ask the Minister, Deputy Naughton, to come to Balbriggan and visit Foróige? There is a new place going to be opening in Castlelands Community Centre, but if she could visit the existing premises, meet some of the young people and see the good work is being done, that would inform her work a bit better.
Sentiment score: 0.16
The Minister of State certainly can consider himself invited to Balbriggan. I would absolutely love to show him around and to show off. There is nothing we like more than showing off the good things in our constituency. This is a good thing in my constituency and I would like to show it off. The Minister of State mentioned the numbers in his response and I can see those figures on the page in front of me. However, they do not match up with the growing need in the area. The Government says it wants young people to be able to access the services and all the rest of it but I do not know how it reconciles that with Balbriggan’s loss of three youth workers. That means 100 to 150 young people who need support will not get it. The Minister of State referred to the UBU Your Place Your Space scheme, which is absolutely fantastic and does exactly what it says on the tin. It helps young people who are marginalised or vulnerable and at risk of not flourishing. That is a great phrase. That is the problem: these young people are at risk of not flourishing without this intervention. I recently visited Remember Us and Foróige and heard from the young people there exactly how valuable the services are to them, how much they need and appreciate them and how much more could be done with more investment. That is the key here. We must ensure there are safe permanent spaces where young people can access services. We must ensure youth workers are properly funded. We also must ensure things like auto-enrolment are catered for in the funding because that is a right those workers have as much as everybody else. While I absolutely welcome the money that has been given to date, there is a growing need and the budget must grow with that need.
Sentiment score: 0.31
The Minister of State will have that email before day's end.
Sentiment score: 0.00