Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In the programme for Government it states on page 82 that the new Government will fund the expansion of youth services and support early school leavers to find employment. In a recent reply to a parliamentary question the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, said there are 1,400 youth workers in Ireland. However, there are only five youth workers in Cork South-West - in the whole of this large constituency. Towns like Bantry, Clonakilty, Dunmanway and Skibbereen do not have a single youth worker, or any youth service of any description. That is a huge loss to the youth of those towns at a time when we are living with the scourge of drugs and social isolation. There is an urgent need for the establishment of a Carbery youth service to serve the ever-growing youth population of west Cork. Will the Government support the setting up of such a youth service in west Cork?

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