Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)

This is a really important area of focus. I am based in the Meath East constituency. We have a really young population there. In the context of absolutely every measure, we have a huge inadequacy of services for young people. I will be going into the House later to talk to the Taoiseach about disability services for young people and about general practice. It is across the board.

I was a county councillor before I became a TD. I can still hear the parents saying to me that the kids are grown up now and that it is too late for them. There are just so many of them. It is very frustrating. At worst, we are failing children by not giving them the opportunity to avail of services their peers in other places might be. There is huge unmet need and it is one of those pieces in politics where I would be critical of the Government in terms of its appreciation of the importance of the sector and the work it does. An awful lot in politics revolves around the Government versus the Opposition aspect, but I feel like that and there is a huge amount I can point to in relation to it.

I heard everything the witnesses said about the long history of this and the need for not just a strategy but for something to come out of it in terms of implementation. One of the key pieces I see around implementation is the establishment of a national youth sector reference group and the potential opportunity there for the Department to engage in proper co-creation, co-development and co-implementation. How would the witnesses like to see that take shape so it does not become like a tick-box exercise? We are familiar with that ladder of engagement and involvement. Will the witnesses give me their sense of the importance of that platform or forum and what it might look like from their perspective if they were advising the Minister, for example?