Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There is no doubt that the move to level 5 presents challenges everywhere. The Deputy probably noticed yesterday that we continued to allow training for young teams. That is on the sports side of things but it is important for the issue of mental health, which the Deputy flagged.

During the previous lockdown, a lot of youth services moved online very quickly and, as the levels of restriction came down, were able to come together in smaller groups. Unfortunately, for the time being we will be back to online provision only. I think many of them have got better at it and because of some of the capital supports we have been able to put in, there might be slightly better technology. I hope that technology will be significantly enhanced next year.

I know that some groups were considering doing socially distanced drop-out visits to deliver food or little care packages containing books and so on to keep people entertained. I acknowledge the great work that has been done. We are still engaging with the sector at all times and if we see methods by which we can support their work during the next six weeks, we will use them.

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