Tom Clonan (Independent)
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I thank the witnesses for coming in. I have two straightforward questions and I invite each of the stakeholders to address them. I am struck by a recurring theme through all the presentations of the use of staffing, funding, premises and another pattern around the qualitative impact of youth work versus the trend towards quantitative measures imposed by funding streams and so on. The national youth work development plan being abandoned in 2008 seems to have been a turning point and a number of the witnesses referred to that time around 2008 when the wheels started to come off the carriage. Can the witnesses identify a lead agency, Department or individual that might be useful in turning that around and getting us back on the correct track?

The second question is whether we have a neighbour in the European Union whose model of youth work is worth looking at or emulating, or which is a model of best practice, impact and efficiency?