Ms Paula Soraghan:

I thank Senator McGreehan very much for her question. It is lovely to see her again. In answer to her question, as I mentioned in the opening statement, the youth collective is run on a voluntary basis because, although I am very passionate about the work and this is my second year facilitating it, it is unfortunately not my full-time job. I am employed on the VOICE pilot project through the Department of Rural and Community Development's community development programme but I am very passionate about the youth collective and the importance of that space. We need a commitment that there will be more funding and resourcing for DPOs like ILMI. For example, we need a dedicated youth worker to be employed full-time to work within that space, to nurture it, to help it grow and to build on the work that I and previous colleagues have done over the last few years. The youth collective has been going since 2020 and has achieved some great work, as I have mentioned. We could achieve a lot more if there was a dedicated youth worker working full-time to nurture that space. There is a lot of opportunity and we would appreciate a commitment from the State in respect of multiannual funding to allow for dedicated resourcing to help it to grow and continue. Although we have reached many young disabled people, people can be very busy and different things can happen in their lives. Some are now over 30 and are outside the age bracket, although they are still engaged with ILMI as a whole, which is fantastic. We are just aware that more funding and more resourcing would mean we would be able to reach more young disabled people, people who feel isolated or lonely at the moment and who feel they are the problem and there is no space out there for them. It would really help to change that.