Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Bríd Smith.

It frustrates me that every few months, or maybe every couple of years, there is a moral panic about antisocial behaviour, young people, violence and criminality and politicians jump up and down and call for more police, but what rarely happens is a serious engagement with the communities that are affected by deprivation, neglect, dereliction, poverty and the housing crisis and the lack of things for young people, particularly young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, to do. In between the moral panics, we do not seriously engage with those communities, young people and, most importantly, the groups and organisations in working-class communities that try to make things better and do positive things to give alternatives to young people to all that people are so quick to give out about.

I wish to cite the example of Monkstown Boxing Club in Monkstown Farm in my area. Monkstown Boxing Club started in the old Mounttown Flats, which were run-down flats in one of the most deprived and neglected areas in the entire city. It took many years for that community to force the council to redevelop that area, improve it and build a new community facility. One of the key groups there was Monkstown Boxing Club, which involved young people from diverse backgrounds -Traveller backgrounds, ethnic minority backgrounds and diverse social backgrounds - in the positive activity of boxing. They have done wonders in that community. Twenty years on, this year Jack Marley, became the youngest ever Irish heavyweight elite champion, coming back from the European Under-22 championships as a gold medalist. He is now training for the Olympics. Seán Mari, another young man from that club, an Irish elite champion, has just come back from Montenegro as the flyweight gold medalist from a multinational competition. He is also training for the Olympics.

Around him are fantastic coaches, including Paulie, James, Tommy and Darren, who do it all voluntarily, and loads of young people from diverse backgrounds. These are precisely the people who are often not reached by rugby or soccer clubs, the GAA or other sports. As the club coaches and the children themselves say, if they were not doing this, they could well be in serious trouble. With everything this club has done, since it was in the run-down Mounttown Flats, it still does not have a clubhouse of its own. It has no showers or changing rooms. It does not have a storage area. Just two weeks ago, in a community facility that is supposed to be the club's, the manager locked out the entire club and all of the local groups for ten days at a few hours' notice without any explanation. There are young people training for the Olympics. All of these young people took their protest to the council and trained on the streets in the cold to make the point to the council that this was unacceptable. These are the club's facilities and it has been locked out of it.

In fairness, the council is now engaging with the club and we are campaigning for a permanent home and to get it back into the clubhouse. It is an instance of the lack of engagement and the lack of support we give to people and groups who are trying to do positive things to bring people away from everything that politicians are so quick to neglect. I ask the Minister of State to take this salutary lesson on the need for important things such as boxing clubs and other positive initiatives in working-class communities where the communities themselves know best how to provide alternatives for young people.

See this speech in context