Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The conversation about funding is very important and so is the discussion around the territory of youth work. There is a perception of the young people being the threat but when people go into a community, they realise they are not the threat at all. It is other workers or organisations one has to be watchful of, rather than the young people who are so vilified. That is very scary. If someone is getting two or three interventions, it is obviously about a need for collaboration more than warning people away from working with particular groups. It just does not make sense to me. There is then the conversation around how to know whether something is a vocation for people versus a profession. Although I completely agree regarding parity of pay, we need to be very careful in that when a sector is completely professionalised, it pushes out the local knowledge of the local young people. Who will be willing to take a risk on them?

It comes back to the youth apprenticeship aspect, which is so important. When I was hired to work with young people who were using heroin, I was not a youth worker or a drugs worker at the time. That would not happen now. I was 17 years of age when Fr. Liam came to me and said I was the gateway to accessing those young people. I was only three or four years ahead of them and was not long out of my own chaotic drug use and my own criminality. Everybody else had a judgment apart from Fr. Liam. He was not judging me; he was only seeing potential. That gets to the crux of it. How can there be a relationship if people are carrying judgment into all their interactions with the people with whom they are supposed to be working? It ties into that comment about being shocked that parents would allow a particular amount of drug use because it is safer than the alternative. When people do not understand that, it seems like a big, scary thing. For many of us, however, it is quite a normal thing. That is the distance between what is happening on the ground and what is happening at a national level.

I will name-check some of the issues that stand out to me that may need to be addressed. If I do not, they will not end up in the report. The witnesses can tell me whether they are issues we should explore. Under the youth work strategy, we are looking at 18- to 24-year-olds. Adulthood is a consideration officially when it comes to the justice system or being able to intervene or advocate for a young person. All of a sudden, the young person is deemed to be old enough.

We can no longer deal with that young person by making phone calls to adult mental health services or whatever he or she might be engaged in. How much of an issue is this? It probably ties into Deputy Sherlock's comments about guardians ad litemand advocacy. What does intervention look like and what needs to be addressed in terms of 18- to 24-year-olds, especially in mental health services? HSE adult mental health services will only see you if you are about to kill yourself or are experiencing psychosis. They do not want to know about any mental health issues outside of those. What special youth work intervention is needed for 18- to 24-year-olds?

The representatives from St. Ultan's might comment on my next questions, which relate to education. Through my work in prisons, I am conscious of the large number of young neurodivergent men who did not have access to any form of intervention while in education and ended up in prison interacting with the criminal justice system. As they engage in the world with unmet needs, they suddenly become kids who need interventions, but the world sees them as criminals. Where do they pass from people who need intervention to people who should be in prison without any understanding of what is happening? Has St. Ultan's experience of this?

My next question is on minority groups. Youth work and society are changing, but how have the models and resourcing of youth work progressed in terms of culturally appropriate youth work and ensuring we are providing adequate interventions? Intervening is difficult when you are not being resourced because you cannot move into the creative space to examine the cultural element. Will any of the representatives comment on this matter as it relates to minority groups? FamiliBase would be in and out of Labre Park working with Travellers. Where do minority groups fall into youth work strategies and in the composition of youth workers? I constantly speak about social class and ensuring that people from a certain social class are in particular professions. The same needs to be said about ensuring representation in the form of Traveller and black youth workers. How much does this issue impact on culturally appropriate youth work?

My final question is on youth apprenticeships. They are important. Some work was done on them recently, but people have since washed their hands of them and said that they cannot support them. I do not know whether Mr. Sharpe and I are speaking about the same issue, but the information I have received is that whichever Department was taking responsibility has said it cannot provide youth work apprenticeships because it cannot guarantee funding for four years. Am I correct?