Ms Lorraine Gilligan:

I have noted a couple of the Deputy's questions but if I miss anything she asked, she might redirect me. I will try to cover everything. I will first speak to the Deputy's question about practical action, especially around climate change and engaging young people directly in activity, which is important. Talking and thinking about these things are important but feeling it and being involved as a participant is essential. I know the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is this week inviting applications from youth organisations for funding under the youth climate justice fund. That might be of interest to people listening to the debate. The Department will communicate that invitation more broadly this week. That will have a new emphasis in 2020 on young people with fewer opportunities to try to engage and have a broader reach into the full and wider community.

The Deputy also asked about the European Solidarity Corps, which resonates, in some ways, as a surprise. If the Deputy was a Member of the European Parliament at the time, she will know it was an initiative of the then President of the European Commission. The programme was built on the bones of an existing action to encourage volunteering by young people within Erasmus+. The programme had been up and running for 20 years at that stage.

What I can tell the Deputy about the journey of the solidarity corps is that at the outset there was a lot of investment and great ambition for the European Solidarity Corps. Some areas of the programme as it was originally designed were much more engaging for organisations and young people than others. We have a programme now that does not include the original work placement idea. That is being delivered separately through the ALMA - aim, learn, master, achieve - initiative that was referenced by our colleagues in Eurofound. This is a much more youth, community, civic organisations-focused programme and it supports young people to live in, work with and experience communities and cultures across Europe as they volunteer in organisations and communities on issues such as climate change, social justice or mental health issues. They are involved in many different organisations in Ireland and across the EU.

Another wonderful initiative of that programme, and I thank the people who supported it, is the solidarity projects. They are projects that can happen at local level. They are designed, developed and implemented by the young people who are living in that community. There are quite a lot of those types of projects at present, focused on areas such as mental health, equality, climate justice, social justice in the areas of direct provision and various other similar issues. Many young people are involved in those projects. The last thing I will say on that is that in the European Solidarity Corps we see quite high participation rates for young people with fewer opportunities, which is how we try to measure our reach into more inclusive and more diverse areas of co-operation and partnership.

I hope that covers the questions the Deputy asked. If not, I am happy to follow up.