Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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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.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Cummins for raising this important issue and for offering me the opportunity to respond on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley. I can see the Deputy's commitment to the area. She has lived it and breathed it so I can see how important it is to her on both a political and personal level.

The Minister is committed to supporting the delivery and development of youth work services and opportunities for young people throughout the country. This year, almost €85 million in funding has been allocated for youth services and capital expenditure, which represents an increase in funding of €7 million, or almost 9% on the 2024 budget. Over the period from 2021 to 2025, the level of current Exchequer funding for youth services and programmes will have increased by more than 34%.

In September 2024, the then Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, launched Opportunities for Youth: the National Strategy for Youth Work and Related Services. This strategy aims to provide a more strategic, data-driven and joined-up approach to the delivery of youth work and related services in Ireland. Informed by wide-ranging consultation with young people, the youth sector, education and training boards and other key stakeholders, the strategy identifies both strategic objectives and individual actions to guide the delivery and development of youth work services.

Challenges to the youth work workforce emerged strongly as a key theme across the consultations. In response to the consultations with youth workers, action 7 of Opportunities for Youth aims to produce a workforce development strategy this year. This strategy will include consideration of training needs and the requirement for high-quality, accessible and inclusive youth work services and opportunities. To date, a large-scale workforce survey in the sector has been compiled, gathering the views of almost 1,000 individuals, including youth workers and youth work managers.

When the Department’s analysis of the responses is complete, we will have a clearer picture of the range, level and type of qualification held by or being undertaken by youth workers and managers. Furthermore, this week a survey will issue to employers in national youth organisations and independent youth services in the sector. This will provide a more complete picture of the workforce in the sector and enable comparative analysis to be undertaken.

The data and information gathering and analysis is a critical step to informing the Department’s approach to actions regarding the education and training of youth workers in the workforce development strategy. The broad aim of the workforce development strategy is to support youth workers and youth organisations in delivering a best-in-class service to young people in Ireland. The Deputy will know that many youth workers are already qualified in youth work or related fields. She gave us an indication of her own pathway into the area. Ultimately, this strategy will support those in the sector who wish to follow in this pathway.

The Deputy made reference to an all-island approach. Currently, there are five higher education institutions on the island of Ireland offering undergraduate or postgraduate qualifications in youth work. The North South Education and Training Standards committee for youth work, NSETS, is responsible for the professional endorsement of undergraduate and postgraduate youth work education programmes in higher education institutions on the island of Ireland. NSETS is funded and supported by the Minister, Deputy Foley’s Department.

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister of State for his contribution. The increase in funding for youth work is very welcome. The role I had immediately after youth work was working in the school completion programme. While there have been increases in funding for both of those sectors, during the austerity era youth work and the school completion programme were cut so dramatically and so drastically that they have not recovered to pre-austerity levels. While there have been increases in funding, they are not back to the original levels nor are they keeping in line with inflation. That is putting huge pressure on youth services to appropriately fund the services they provide.

Looking at my area, Dublin 8, the centre burned down and the projects could no longer be housed there. There is a lack of space in Dublin 8 for youth services to be housed. That means young people are hanging around and not able to do anything. They want to do things. Just because young people are hanging out, it does not mean they are involved in antisocial behaviour. However, youth workers want to engage them. We have that possibility to do that. There is fantastic work going on in all the youth services in Dublin 8 and I commend them on their work. More young people are coming into youth work.

I welcome the survey the Minister of State mentioned, which will go out next week. That will shed a clear light on how many youth workers there are, the level of qualifications they have, where the needs are and on being able to fill that gap.

I would like to see a committee for young people in this Dáil term. Every decision made here is going to affect the people who are young now in the future. If we could future-proof and young people-proof every decision we made, we would be very copped on. It is great to work with young people. They keep you real and they always talk straight, and I appreciate that. I thank the Minister of State.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I again thank Deputy Cummins for raising this important matter today. I note the points she made and her acknowledgement of the survey and the benefits it will bring. I note her point on a committee for young people. That matter will be brought to the attention of the Minister, Deputy Foley.

While providing adequate funding of youth work and youth services is essential, it is also paramount that youth workers themselves are supported with access to development pathways. Provision of high quality, inclusive youth work services is a key goal of Opportunities for Youth: the National Strategy for Youth Work and Related Services. As with many other sectors, there are challenges around recruitment and retention. Making the sector attractive and meaningful to work in is essential in achieving a sustainable model of youth work services and ensuring they are accessible to all young people. To address this, action 7 of Opportunities for Youth aims to produce a workforce development strategy in respect of the youth work sectors to address and support the needs of youth workers. Action 14 of Opportunities for Youth aims to implement an updated sector-wide national quality standards framework. Youth work, qualified, well-supported and trained youth workers contribute significantly to the quality of the services provided in youth services throughout the country. The Minister, Deputy Foley, and her Department are confident that this strategic approach to supporting youth work and youth workers will build on the driven, committed and compassionate work currently being delivered by youth work services across Ireland.