Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)

I can only agree with Deputy Stanton, it is a point well made. Access to facilities and resources is a huge issue. We have seen buildings that could be used by local youth clubs and organisations that are empty in the evenings, the very time when they could be available to such organisations. I will pursue that with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to see if we could make progress on the issue.

I will take Deputy Durkan's point on further contact with the youth organisations but I assure him there is ongoing contact with all of the organisations. There is a budget for the youth sector in 2011 of €60 million and we must ensure it is spent effectively to give us the best youth services we can get at this time. I agree with the point made by Deputies that this is a particularly stressful time for many young people and youth organisations have an important role to play in getting services to these young people.

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