Mr. Paul Gordon:

Regarding the sustainability of the role and the vocation, I am glad Senator Ruane brought it back to what youth work is. It is still happening. It is a resilient sector. It teaches resilience in young people. It brings them together in settings where they are in an equal partnership and that still happens regardless of the challenges and regardless of the sector often doing more with less. In terms of where the sustainability of the role has come from and the talk about crises here today, it is mainly underlying issues that have been bubbling under the surface for a while. Covid has an impact on volunteer recruitment which has, in turn, put additional pressure on paid staff. The cost of living has had an impact as it has across society. In a sector that is generally low paid with short term contracts, it has impacted people.

As Ms Cunningham said, they are deciding to go to State bodies and semi-State bodies which offer increments and longer term contracts. Even though they love the role and it is a vocation for them, unfortunately it does not pay the bills anymore, particularly for those based in Dublin, which I am sure Ms Dunne has seen in many instances. In the short term, the sector needs greater funding to manage through the next few years, but in the longer term, we need a workforce development plan so that we have a robust sector.

As Ms Cunningham said, and as Professor Devlin touched on in response to Senator Clonan, it is really well regarded within Europe and has one of the most developed youth work networks. As a representative body we have 55 members. There are great opportunities for learning and sharing good practice across the sector. We are one of six European countries that has degree courses for youth work. That is just not isolated to one institute, but it is nationwide. We have really robust training that turns out great youth workers. Ultimately, it is a major challenge to retain them. We are probably losing them earlier than we might have in the past.