Mr. Gordon Hill:

Briefly, many organisations such as ours welcome the comments of the Deputy regrading acknowledging the discrimination against young people as a whole in terms of welfare rates. Organisations such as Crosscare, the National Youth Council of Ireland and the Irish Coalition to End Youth Homelessness have acknowledged that the situation is unlikely to change in one budget. There are probably unintended consequences in terms of the level of impact of the rate cut on the two groups to which I refer, which is why we focus on them. In terms of the overall sense of discrimination against that age group, this group is very vulnerable and the poverty trap is very difficult to get out of when they are struggling. That is why we focused in particular on a much lower cost and much higher outcome for the young people involved in our space. Our youth services regularly meet young people who are couch surfing or have ended up in a situation such as that described by the Deputy. We are very aware of the impact on such young people.