Mr. Eric O'Connell:

Youth information is serving as a canary in the coalmine, so to speak, in helping young people to vet information and giving them the skills to do that independently. As of now, the youth information centre for the entirety of County Galway is in Ballinasloe. This ties into a larger problem we are having in the county where there is no true open door youth space, no true third space. Young people have their homes and schools, but where do they have besides that? They should not need to participate in an activity to have somewhere to go.

Ultimately, one of the big issues for young people with regard to misinformation and disinformation is that they might not have anybody to bounce that off. Traditionally, that might have been the role of youth workers but if the parameters of that category keep expanding, it will end up with them having about 50 jobs. A true recognition of the role of the youth information officer is important in this case. Ultimately, Galway truly needs a youth centre to meet the needs of every young person, whether that be in terms of a third space, long-term support or information. It is all desperately missing.