Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will start by saying I disagree with the Chairman about the outcome of the elections. Clearly I am an outsider from down here looking up. One of the biggest outcomes was the rise of the Alliance Party, which is representative of a rise in the number of people who just want to get on with life, in a way. I will still grieve for the loss of the two Green MLAs, who would also have represented that desire to just get on with things. There was mention of a loss of European identity and Mr. Steven Agnew, a former MLA, signed in by identifying his community as European. He certainly spoke much about that sense of loss.

Senator Ó Donnghaile also referred to the power and importance of youth work. At the time we saw those clashes and difficulties, with the burning bus and all of that, youth work was on the front line and youth workers were literally putting themselves in harm's way to try to make things better for their communities. The news reported lots of young people causing trouble but there were older or not-so-young people behind them, riling them and using them for their own political ends. What comes to mind is one news report where local representatives and youth workers were trying to calm things and they became the target of the attacks. This is just about speaking to the power of youth work and the role that people like the witnesses play.

Building on that, if we are looking at a European social fund cliff for funding in April 2023, there is a responsibility in Dublin and London to ensure that does not come about and we can step in with flexible funding. That funding should get out of people's way and let them do the working they need to do, which we have already spoken about as being quite successful. We cannot control what happens in London but what should we in Dublin be asking for as the budgetary process begins to ramp up over the coming months? What is it we should be campaigning or asking for? If the delegations wish to provide exact numbers at a later date, it would be very helpful.

I have two brief questions. I am interested in hearing more about Include Youth and the one-to-one preventative work it does around child sexual exploitation. I am conscious that I am coming from this from a background in youth work and child protection and this is not the children's committee, on which I also sit. I do not know how much the witnesses want to go into that and maybe we can speak about it afterwards. It is an underdeveloped piece that I would love to know more about. We can save it for afterwards if the witnesses prefer.

As I said, that strikes me as innovative and underdeveloped work down here. If we have time, it would be great to hear about some positive outcomes and achievements that the witnesses have heard about. We should get them on record now as well. Let us hear about the work they do that they are proud of so we can take it away and, as I have said, argue that the funding cliff is closing in and we need to provide a safe landing. We should be able to say that we need to prevent that funding cliff and give reasons. It will help us in that advocacy.