Mr. Brendan Cummins:

This just came to me halfway through and I was hemming and hawing about saying it. With youth work changing so much and being so many things to so many different young people, we really need to go back and look at the Youth Work Act and the definition of youth work. This is where the disjoint between the top and bottom comes from.

When new people come in as civil servants, that is what they read and that is what they think it is and that is not what it is anymore. It is no longer just a planned programme of activities. It is life-saving shit that is happening on the ground. It is not just complementing the formal education system. For some people, this is their education. I will keep going if I do not stop there. Colourful language is about to emerge about bureaucrats. If we are going to be ballsy about making change in young people's lives, which is really important because we are talking about people's lives, it is not arts and crafts or bingo on a Friday afternoon with ten-year-olds. We are talking about people's lives and it is life-changing and transformative. Sometimes it is the only cup of tea someone will get. You are not supposed to hug anymore but sometimes it is the only hug a young fellow will get all week. We really need to scale back, pull it apart and ask "Is this what we are offering? Is this what we are funding?" If it is, fair enough. Some of us will probably just say we do not do youth work anymore. I suppose we do life-saving stuff. We are doctors on the ground. The definition of youth work is constraining and is choking what youth work is on the ground so that is the piece that needs to change. It will allow us to do that case management piece that allows us to work with the young person and the mammy. We cannot work with young people on our own because they go back to the mammy and live like that for the rest of the week. Sorry, I am on my soapbox now - game over. The clock has gone red. I thank the committee for listening and for inviting me.