Mr. Gerard Roe:

I thank Senator Ruane. That is a good question. We only have to look at each election cycle lasting five years. Then there is another election, and you end up asking yourself where youth work is going to end up. I can only look at the recent example. This used to be the Joint Committee on Children, Disability, Equality and Integration. We had to fight to get the word "Youth" included in the title. It was forgotten about. Before that, it was the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. We were getting somewhere then because there was an actual Department dedicated to this area. I do not know about before that time.

As I mentioned in my submission, we are operating without a youth strategy. It is being forgotten about. We are living in challenging and unprecedented times. These are cynical times we are living in, but we cannot forget about our young people. I would not like to be growing up now. Would Mr. Sharpe like to be a teenager again? I do not think so. Young people are up against it now, and we are moving too fast. Youth work fills a void that things like school, the justice system and Tusla cannot. We are like the janitor mopping up the mess here in the middle but we are not recognised for what we actually do. Youth work is crucial and has never been more needed.

I might sound biased, but I am at the coalface. I see the realities young people are living with, and it is my job to communicate that to the committee. There are communities which are probably not affected in the way young people are where we work. Ireland definitely has communities that are insulated from these problems. We are not talking about those young people because their needs are met. We are talking about the thousands of young people in this State who have unmet needs. Those unmet needs are not down to the poor choices parents are making. It comes back to what I said. It is the failure of the State and its policies. We are not reviewing them.

Going back several years, a value-for-money report on youth work was published, as if to say that children and young people are not worth investing in. I would love to see a value-for-money report done on the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 and its application since then. We have spent billions and not one outcome has resulted from it. Give us that money. Put it into youth work and real outcomes will be seen. That is my answer to that question. I am sorry I got very passionate and animated, but this is how strongly I feel about youth work.