Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the Senator's passion in respect of this matter. Having been involved in youth work, I know the invaluable work that youth organisations do. I met some of the organisations prior to the budget. The youth strategy the Minister launched and has led on was developed with broad stakeholder engagement involving youth work organisations. Opportunities still exist. Officials are examining the options available for the distribution of youth funding in 2025. All of what I have outlined shows that there has been a significant increase. We also have to be mindful that there are many more young people now. We have a very young population. Our demographic in that regard is very different from the rest of Europe. There are also more hard-to-reach communities and more hard-to-reach young people who are in need of services in rural and urban areas throughout the country. The Minister is very conscious of this. It is important that we continue to work together to try to address these issues with Youth Work Ireland and the national youth organisations.