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

Like my colleague, I was a youth worker for many years and worked on the school completion programme. Anyone who has worked with young people knows just how amazing they are, how hopeful they are and how clear they are in their vision for the future. They love their friends and their families.

When things are going well for young people, it is a positive experience to be around them. However, Ireland has a real difficulty with young people. Yesterday, I went to an event with the Ombudsman for Children, who was talking about the deaths of children and the fact that there needed to be a review. There are 200 parents protesting outside Leinster House because of a lack of appropriate school places and the supports that go with them. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan talked about mother and baby homes. The list goes on. Children in care age out and end up in homelessness. As Deputy Gannon said, poverty and adverse childhood experiences can significantly divert the pathway a young person takes. Regardless of which party we come from, if any, it is incumbent on Members of the Thirty-fourth Dáil to get our act together and do everything we can to ensure that everything is in place. A good starting point would be restoring funding for youth services, Garda youth diversion projects, school completion programmes and other services like them. Funding is being restored but only to pre-austerity levels while the cost of everything has gone up. Everybody is saying that. If we could get on track with that, those youth services and programmes could take in more young people.

In the last few seconds I have, I will note that I am from Dublin South-Central and there are no playing pitches in Dublin 8. We have been fighting for this for a really long time. Young people have to hang out on the road because there is nowhere else. When young people hang out on the road, it is not antisocial behaviour. It is their equivalent of a café.

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