Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister outlined the four applications from County Kildare and I will briefly touch on them. I previously raised with her the fact that County Kildare is playing catch-up in terms of investment in what is one of the largest youth populations of any county. As the Minister will have witnessed during her visit to County Kildare to open The Hive youth facility in Kildare town when she met all the agencies and groups, there is good collaboration between them and they work well together. The application from Foróige is an example of that in that it involves Foróige leading the project on behalf of an inter-agency group to create a dedicated and co-ordinated post to further develop the Strengthening Families programme. I launched the evaluation for the programme last year. It works and we must be able to extend it and provide it in other locations.

The application from the Kildare Leader programme is for the Mojo project. Young men aged between 18 and 24 are getting involved in it with an open mind as it does not have the stigma attaching to HSE-run projects. The Mojo project is working well in Kildare town and it was previously in Athy. We need the project in Newbridge, in particular, and in other locations.

The Kildare Youth Services educational support programme for early school leavers is important, as is the Kilcullen community childcare facility, which does fantastic work in the greater Kilcullen area. The inter-agency collaboration in Kildare must be recognised. Any money the Department gives to the four projects will be well spent and well received by the large youth population we have in the county.

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