Gillian Toole (Meath East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí. Is fíor an seanfhocal sin. I commend and thank the youth diversion project teams, particularly in County Meath, and juvenile liaison officers Garda Barbara Kelly and Garda Aisling Connor in Meath north and Meath south, who are doing fantastic work. I also commend the probation service officers, Louth Meath Education and Training Board, public representatives and the young people themselves who engage. We are grateful for the investment and increased funding in County Meath received towards the end of last year. However, the common thread in the room is that more resources are necessary. It is not necessarily the big ticket items; it is funding towards buses, tickets to the cinema, hiring astroturf, hiring sports halls, activity centres and yes, it is the increase in Garda resources and the wraparound services. As has been said, this is about the mental health supports, the youth workers themselves, drug awareness programmes and the Comhairle na n-Óg programme through the local authorities as well. I learned today at an excellent briefing in the audiovisual room on a publication by Trinity College Dublin about untreated ADHD and the risk factors with substance misuse and then following on from that the likelihood of engaging in crime. These are the themes we have discussed this week regarding the overlap with special education provision, family resource services, special community employment schemes. That is the common thread here whereby we must have inter- and intra-government and State and semi-State agencies working together because ultimately, mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí.

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