Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Hearing that funding has been secured is welcome but could we look at this in a different way? When I hear about Youth Advocate Programmes, YAP, Ireland Ltd, the wonderful work it does and how it is trying to source funding for advocates, I wonder why we are not investing in the groups that are already there. Why do we not give funding to EPIC and YAP? We know there is a shortage of social care workers and that we are struggling to recruit them but we know we have good agencies that can work with and empower young people. We do not need to reinvent the wheel. What these organisations are looking for is funding. Why do we not get behind these organisations and give them the support they need? They are on the ground and know this system and how it works. The fact that we do not have the personnel to fill the posts shows that it is one thing giving funding but, regrettably, when we cannot hire the personnel, we are still left with the same problem so we are not moving forward and I have a huge concern about this.

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