Ms Mary Cunningham:

I thank the Chair, Deputies and Senators for the very kind words at the start. They are appreciated. I thank members for the opportunity to present today on behalf of the National Youth Council of Ireland. The National Youth Council of Ireland is the representative body for voluntary youth organisations in Ireland and our role is recognised in legislation.

As Ireland shapes its national approach to youth work, it is essential that any strategy or implementation plan is grounded in the lived realities, expertise and vision of the youth work sector. Youth work is a distinct, rights-based educational practice that supports young people’s personal and social development. It is most effective when it is co-created with those who deliver it and those who benefit from it.

The publication of Opportunities for Youth, the national strategy for youth work and related services, in September 2024 was a welcome step in terms of visibility and political recognition. However, there remain opportunities to strengthen the strategy’s content, clarity, and actionable commitments to better support youth work in Ireland. I would like to refer the committee to the action plan that NYCI has provided, which we, as a sector, compiled and submitted to the Secretary General of the Department of Education and Youth earlier this summer. I want to focus on two things, namely the implementation of strategy and purposeful structures for engagement between officials and the voluntary youth work sector.

Speaking at the launch of Opportunities for Youth last year, I told the audience that it had been almost nine years since I had stood on a similar platform at the launch of Ireland’s first ever national youth strategy, genuinely full of optimism and hope for the future for young people and youth work in Ireland. Sadly, that strategy was never implemented. I said that I was much more cautious at the launch of Opportunities for Youth because history tells us that in the absence of a strategy, execution is aimless and without execution, strategy is useless. Our track record on implementation is woeful. I highlighted that the challenge would be the pace of and process for implementation, recognising that at that point we were on the cusp of significant change, a new Government, a new Minister and, perhaps, youth affairs located in a new Department, not to mention the regular churn of officials and an under-resourced youth affairs unit. All of that has come true. We have a new Government, and more than 60 TDs have been elected for the first time. We have a new Minister in Deputy McEntee, and we have a new Departmental location for youth affairs, which NYCI is very supportive of. I highlighted then that delivery of 18 actions over a relatively short timescale was very challenging, and 14 months later that has remained the case. There has been no implementation plan produced.

While we have been asked here to talk about implementation of Opportunities for Youth, it is difficult to do so in the absence of an actual implementation plan. This is something the committee must raise with the Department. While I know I am not comparing like with like, we might look to First 5, the national early years strategy. The implementation plan for the latter, relating to the period 2023 to 2025, contains 125 actions that will be delivered by ten Departments, the HSE, Tusla and 31 delivery partners. Each action includes a defined 2025 output and annual milestones, monitored by the First 5 implementation office. Opportunities for Youth is much less complex, with 18 priority actions. So far, there is no implementation plan in respect of it. The strategy lacks clear milestones and indications as to how the implementation will be monitored and by whom. I welcomed reference to engage with youth organisations and young people regarding the implementation as a positive step in the right direction. While there has been ongoing ad hocengagement on a range of issues including the youth night pilot and preparations for the EU Presidency next year, there has not been a formal structure created to support the work. I reiterate that we are in the dark about when the implementation plan will be published, never mind how we will collaborate on the actions, and through what structure, so it is very hard to have confidence.

The youth work sector has experience, resources and talents to maximise our capacity to contribute to the implementation of the strategy and to support young people to reach their full potential and positively shape their own futures. Let us use Opportunities for Youth to harness and realise the value of youth work practice, build on what we know works and strengthen partnerships not just with youth affairs in the Department of Education and Youth, but with a number of other Departments and agencies that fund youth work and with our statutory colleagues in ETBs, in order that we can keep creating safe spaces for young people and delivering vibrant, fun and effective youth work that helps young people become the very best they can be.

As I have said many times and as I hope members appreciate, the challenge that remains is the pace of and process for implementation. We really need to get cracking. There must be a real commitment from the youth affairs unit, the Department of Education and Youth and the other key Departments and agencies to implementation and a concerted effort to lead and drive that implementation in partnership with the youth work sector and young people.

As already stated, there have been two budgets since Opportunities for Youth was launched and neither has given the priority funding needed for its implementation. We know that youth work can do a lot with a little, but the impact of the historical cuts in funding has been immense. We cannot deliver more and better youth work to young people without additional resources and investment. The youth work sector is resilient and resourceful but for how much longer? We need an implementation plan and we will need the funding to support it.