Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

In a lot of instances in the past, what happened with funding being provided was that we focused on specific projects because there had been specific needs in areas, whether they were related to drug abuse, crime, mental health or various different challenges that young people identified. What I want to ensure is that we are looking at the geographical spread. We know young people in rural areas are just as impacted as people in urban areas, although the issues might be different. The new programme and funding that will be announced will have a particular focus on geography to make sure we have that spread and that we are looking at counties and areas which might not have benefited to the tune or in the same way as some urban areas have in the past. That does not mean urban areas will be excluded. Obviously, it is about making sure everyone gets their fair share.

I reiterate, and I agree with the Deputy, that our youth organisations have such an important role to play in identifying and supporting young people at the earliest stages possible in order that it does not get to the extreme situation where young people are engaged with youth diversion programmes or the youth justice system. We must support them at the earliest stage possible. As Minister, I want to make sure I can do that through as many different streams as possible. There are a lot of different organisations across different counties and we want all of them to benefit.

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