Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

I take this opportunity to convey my sentiments on behalf of many young people in this country. This debate smacks of the usual tokenism we afford our young people. We are talking about young people but are not talking about doing anything for them. We are not bringing forward any proposals. We are giving ourselves a self-congratulatory slap on the back about ongoing work with young people, some of which I acknowledge. However, it means nothing in terms of this motion and is a pure charade.

According to the report released yesterday by the Ombudsman for Children, Emily Logan, young people are not taken seriously and this debate is an example of this. Although some young people in this country might know that a debate is taking place tonight, others do not. I am sure there are very few people listening to www.oireachtas.ie live on worldwide web. If the Fianna Fáil, Green Party and Independent Deputies supporting this Government were serious about this debate and believed it had value, representative youth groups would be here. If one looks around the Gallery, one can see that not even one group representing young people is here. This smacks of tokenism and means nothing.

We are engaged in filibustering when we could be doing something serious in terms of legislation. Maybe we could have used this as an opportunity to look at the Youth Work Act 2001 to see where it is at, where it is going and what resources are needed and to evaluate the work, progress and proposals of people appointed to the various VECs. That is what we should do in terms of using time valuably. We talk about efficiency, value for money and cost efficiency. This is a complete waste of time. If every young person in this country knew this debate was happening, which they do not, it would qualify their thinking in terms of realising they are not being represented and nobody is listening to them.

What we do on an annual basis in this House is talk about young people, scratch our heads, have a wee charade and pretend that we are representing them when we are not. A very famous person in my parish came out with a very famous statement one night, one in which the Acting Chairman might be interested and which he might use again. He maintained that when all is said and done, there is a hell of a lot more said than done. This sums up what is going on this evening.

The image of young people hanging around on street corners with nothing to do is no stereotype. It is a reality which we must address. As my colleague, Deputy Deenihan, noted in respect of youth cafés, we need facilities where young people can hang out with their peers in an environment that is supervised, not necessarily by adults but by youth workers.

Let us roll out a proper programme where we employ full-time youth workers and a proper educational programme where we have proper degrees for youth and community workers in this country and let us be serious about where we are going with respect to young people. Let us not kid ourselves about the good work that is ongoing. A considerable amount of work is ongoing in different youth projects and there is no generic model for youth work. Different models of youth work exist in Cork and the entire way up through Kerry — which is Deputy Deenihan's backyard — Clare, Mayo, Donegal and Dublin. Different types of projects exist. We should utilise the confidence of our young generation, have proper premises and supply them with proper telecommunications systems, including proper broadband and digital communications systems. If we do this, we will be serious about youth work because tonight we are not serious about it. The debate smacks of tokenism; nothing will be done and we are just making a mockery of the representation of young people here tonight.

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