Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Walsh and Mr. Ferron for saying that retention and recruitment was the single biggest issue. What flows from that is the lack of professionalisation of youth work. Youth workers are doing an incredibly valuable job that touches many different areas of society, not just the young person, family, school or community, but also everything else, including mental health, employment and the contribution that young people can make. All of that is before we even get to the issue of drugs. We absolutely need to make a recommendation. That pertains to my earlier question about the funding. I have been a voluntary director of a youth service for 14 years. We do not know from year to year what our funding is. We are employing people on very precarious terms. We are incredibly lucky to have the people we have working with young people. The funding arrangement is not good enough, so it has to be a strong recommendation from us.

As the witnesses have said, youth work is built on trust and relationships. It is only when there is trust and a relationship that a young person opens up, and quite rightly, because they are at a stage in their life when they are making conscious and critical decisions about everything and about everybody they meet, so why would they not? We need to invest in it and it will pay back in spades.

Cabra for Youth was one of the first to get one of the BeLonG To rainbow awards. It took a bit of effort for us to get that, and we are very proud. At the time, I think there were about six or nine youth services in the country. Has that number increased and if not, what will it take for it to increase? It is really valuable when a youth service gets that award because it sends a signal that this is an inclusive space for everybody. If every youth service in every organisation that had young people using, engaging with or being a member of it had that award, it would send a really strong signal in every school and every club that the organisation was inclusive. What is the barrier?