Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister of State on his new role. I wish him the best of luck and look forward to working with him over the course of this term. I will be speaking on pathways to youth work at third level. Youth work in Ireland is decades old. There are many types of youth work and they exist in every community in the country. Youth workers do a job that is sometimes mistaken or misunderstood by others, and that has led, in my opinion and the opinion of many youth workers and organisations throughout the country, to the undervaluing of a profession that is vital to a coherent, equal and fair society.

On a personal note, as a young person I was involved in youth theatre and then became a youth theatre leader and then a paid professional youth worker. I took a roundabout way to youth work. I already had a master's degree but went back and did a FETAC level 5 qualification when I became a paid professional youth worker. Youth work is political. It is very political. People ask me if I was involved in politics before and, in a roundabout way, through youth work, I was. Youth work is life-changing. I hope the Minister of State will excuse me for going off on a tangent.

I have raised this Topical Issue because I represent Dublin South-Central and youth work is a vital element of our coherent community in Dublin 8, where I live. I do not know whether the Minister of State is familiar with Dublin 8 but there are five large regeneration projects in the area currently ongoing under Dublin City Council. There is a high level of drug dealing and related antisocial behaviour. There are high rates of early school-leaving and non-progression to third level education. When antisocial behaviour boils over into communities, it creates difficulties and youth workers are often called for, alongside gardaí, to sort that out.

In addition, Dublin 8 lacks green space. In fact, it has the lowest amount of green space per capita in the country. Along with that, a community centre that burned down almost four years ago has still not been rebuilt. Quite frankly, if I said the pace at which the project is proceeding is slow, that would be an exaggeration. Youth workers, the Garda youth diversion project and many other projects to help young people with their prosocial skills were based in the centre. It catered for many organisations involving all ages.

In 1985, the then Labour Party and Fine Gael Government published In Partnership with Youth: the National Youth Policy.

Here we are in 2025, many years later. NYCI is a membership-led organisation is talking to TDs in this 34th Dáil, asking them for a number of things. One of the issues set out in that document in 1985 was multi-annual funding for youth work. Youth workers need to get mortgages or pay rent. If you only have annual funding from year to year, it is difficult to run that. That means youth workers are leaving the profession. They are going to agencies, such as Tusla which can afford to pay more, or to other areas.

I am looking to have a discussion about this and for the Government to liaise with some of the agencies in Northern Ireland where there is an apprenticeship model for getting into youth. I will come to that in my second contribution. I suppose pathways to youthwork education are clear. Young people who are involved in youth work often want to become youth workers because it is so life-changing. How can we help them with that, especially where young people are from disadvantaged areas? Progression to third level is difficult for them. An apprenticeship model would help with that. I am looking at that element.

I suggest meeting with the youth workers' education forum and the Education Authority of Northern Ireland to discuss and learn about the apprenticeship model. I have another suggestion which I will make in my second contribution.

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