Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to talk about a youth strategy for this summer as a spectrum of support is required. We have seen the awful video filmed at Howth Junction train station. There were various incidents in Dublin 15 over the weekend that could have been even more serious. On the other hand, children are hanging around in public spaces because they have nothing else to do. There is a spectrum here and while there has definitely been trouble, at the same time not every teenager hanging around a street corner is a hooligan.

For the summer, we need a top-down policing plan and additional resources. The local members of the Garda in Blanchardstown are all over a local policing plan but now that the ban on intercounty travel has been lifted, we can possibly refocus some of those resources into visible policing in our communities, including Covid policing.

It is very important that we also support Foróige in its youth work and its clubs. Its outreach work has continued throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Young people can now start to meet up in groups of 15 outside, but they are currently meeting up in places like car parks. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has dedicated €67 million to youth services this year, but it does not provide universal services for growing areas of need such as Ongar, Luttrellstown, Carpenterstown and other areas in Dublin 15. The Department of Justice announced the youth diversion project and youth diversion budgets, which is to be hugely welcomed as it is doubling the budget, but it is targeted rather than universal support. We have seen additional funding for community centres over the past week or so. Can some summer funding be allocated to youth clubs as well?

People will be working from home until September but schools are closed in July and August. We need a clear roadmap. We had one for the reopening of schools but we need one for summer camps and youth clubs, which are just as essential to some parents and children over the summer. Pods of 15 in outdoor camps will not accommodate everybody. We need to prioritise a strategy for our youth and children over the summer that includes access to indoor camps and youth clubs in a controlled environment, as we did for schools.