Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Both the Minister and I have said before that we are constantly trying to "adultify" young people through television, radio, video, music, comedy, language and other elements of the entertainment world. We rush them into glories of adulthood, with the idea that all things adult mean all things great. We are like fools rushing into adulthood because we consider it a good thing or progress. We forget that people are young and live in a different world, expecting different outcomes. They have different dreams, desires, beliefs, needs, aspirations and worries. They speak, converse and feel in a different and youthful way.

The adult world is not safe and adults are supposed to cope with, know and control that. The world created by youth work is safe, which is one of the sector's greatest and most positive powers. For whatever reason, families across a spectrum of society are not necessarily good places in which to grow up. The street or the corner is not the best place either, so there must always be other roles and models outside the family. We need those now more than ever because the "greats" have let us down, although the Minister has not done so. She has made a distinctive contribution to our society, both politically as a Minister and as a director in the field of children's rights.

The world of youth workers can be the greatest place to look when seeking leaders, guides and routes for hope. In it one can find the answers when we call in education for possibilities, especially where none exist or where young people have nowhere to go, or where there are possibilities but youths have no place to explore them. The world of youth working gives youths attention, activities, language, arts, communication, dialogue and empathy outside what we call mainstream schooling, which provides youths with a new possibility to breathe and become who they really are. The world of youth workers is always the world of possibilities.

Youth work, whether voluntary or paid, is about putting young people where they should be located, in their own world and time with their own language. More importantly, it is with their own peers. The process is not an addendum to a very false rip-off entertainment world or the world of politics, where we believe we should tell people how to think and feel.

I was in Dublin City University for 25 years and loved it. When I arrived, it was deserted, dull, dreary, grey and abandoned. There was a change in the living conditions in Ballymun brought about by a Fine Gael Government and youth workers, with projects, schemes and pilots in all areas of literacy, numeracy, drama, dance and music that came alive. On the university campus, societies had more to say to students, more gifts and education than academic lecturing, although mine was the exception. It was only within the youth world and its workers that real change was seen on the ground. The youth workers of that area became the greatest teachers for the university; they were the route planners in how the university could make a contribution to the world in which it was in the north city. They have become significant partners, as can be seen from the growth of the community and the university, which have done each other proud.

The best youth workers are those who had an opportunity to use the services themselves. There are hundreds of these people around the country and these people should be facilitated and celebrated. We are all clued in, informed and technically adept or plugged in. It is a veneer of communication, which is a false assurance that we have the right kind of language and argument and it will bring about the right result. If somebody tells me something has no economic value, I immediately know it has great human value. The value of youth work is unknown and beyond measurement because it is a silent and managed success, a saviour of the State. When involved in a youth project, whether voluntary or involuntary, that is what makes it great. People give, get and turn up, with unparalleled value. The opportunities can be unmatched.

The report is qualitative. It was produced by an Irish research and consultancy company, Indecon, which does not receive State grants. The report is independent in form, function and judgment. The study is comprehensive. My colleague has stated that 250,000 young people benefit from the youth work area, with 1,400 staff and 40,000 people working in a voluntary capacity. That is real politics at work, and the Government can learn from that and realise that without the world of youth and youth work, it would face costs that could be measured in a very negative and - I am sorry to say - destructive way. I congratulate every youth worker in the country for being political in the best sense of the word and work. I second the motion.