Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh míle maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. Ba mhaith liom tréaslú leis an gCeannaire as an dea-scéal atá aige. Guím gach rath air féin agus ar a pháirtí.

We attended an Oireachtas Members' briefing in Galway yesterday with Youth Work Ireland, Galway's youth counselling service. It has been in existence since 2011, but is now at risk of closure due to a lack of funding. The service was set up to meet the needs of young people who could not access counselling services in Galway due to cost, location and issues relating to counsellors' qualifications. It has provided 15 hours of counselling annually across the county for young people aged between 12 and 21 years in youth centres in Tuam, Ballinasloe, Loughrea and Galway city by qualified and accredited counsellors. It is unique to Galway because it provides a free service that parents can refer to. GP referrals are not required and the service caters for those aged 12 to 14 years whose needs are not being met by the Jigsaw service, which provides listening support to those aged 15 years and older. My understanding is that other services in Galway, such as child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, are referring people to the service. The current crisis is such that it cannot continue to provide services without a stable source of funding and has had to agree that it will need to close and not reopen in September unless the funding issue is addressed. This is an urgent issue. I appreciate that we are having very good debates in the Seanad consultation committee in respect of the area to which this matter relates.

I call on the Leader to ask the Minister, Deputy Zappone, to address the issue through her good offices or by means of a debate in the House. I tabled a Commencement Matter on the issue previously, but I appreciate that there are many other calls on those debates.I am raising this issue with the Leader because it is extremely important and we are coming close to the end of the term. I hope the Leader can raise it with the Minister and her office to ascertain whether anything can be done to both retain the service and to extend it to areas such as Gort, Clifden and Carna, which have been asking for this service to be brought into those areas.