Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael)
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The Minister of State is welcome. I thank him for coming. I received apologies from the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman.

I first encountered youth work early in my working life when I observed the youth work programme. I had the honour of working with the YMCA in the city of Dublin. I saw the extraordinary impact it had on young people's lives, not only from the point of view of activities but also due to the opportunities presented to them. The sheer fact of the relationship with young people was extraordinarily lifesaving and life-changing. For the many young people who do not have mentors in their life, the youth worker is the person to whom they turn if there is the slightest crisis.

In September this year the National Youth Council made a fantastic presentation of its needs in the context of budget 2025 when it asked for €15 million in additional resources. In the same week, I participated in a panel with the Children's Rights Alliance and talked about my passion for what I have seen in youth work, as I have done throughout my career.

The Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth published a report, a central point of which is that youth work is the Cinderella of all the services. It involves highly qualified, professional and motivated people who really want to work with young people in a life-changing way, but they are not supported. The allocations to youth work do not cover the costs involved.

It is important that we honour youth workers, but it is not a sustainable career for people. The moment they arrive at a stage in their lives when they want to settle down or have a family and home of their own, they are not able to stay in youth work because of the pay rates. There are no pensions, and even auto-enrolment has not been properly funded. The cost of running services and facilities is not properly catered for in the budget that has been allocated in recent years. An announcement was made that we are going to have an increased provision of UBU services. Another ten of them are to be launched. We have had that announcement, yet when it comes to it, the rising costs in youth work, which are the same as in any other service or business across the country, are not met by the budget allocation.

Some €1.2 billion was allocated for the ten individual Your Place Your Space services. That is €120,000 each, which would cover 1.5 youth workers and some overheads at the most, and even that is a very modest wage.

I work with the St. John Bosco youth service in Drimnagh, which is extraordinary. It uses everything within its capacity to fund the services for the community of Drimnagh. The centre let out a space to a local guy, who has done extremely well and organised a gym so that there was some income, and Dublin City Council cut its funding because it has a commercial input. We have no sustainable plan for young people who really need it. I have had those young people in here. There is a similar family base in Ballyfermot that does fantastic work. They ask where the money is for youth work.

The word "youth" is thrown in at the very end of the Department's title, and that is how it is treated in the budget allocations. The National Youth Council of Ireland has been fantastic in advocating in this area but it is highly critical of what the Minister has delivered in budget 2025.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I thank Senator Seery Kearney. Having worked in youth services previously, I am aware of the work they do. My own children have greatly benefited from youth work and youth services, including LGBTQI services, and they now volunteer with them.

I thank the Senator for raising this important issue, to which I am responding on behalf of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman. During his time as Minister, there have been significant increases in the level of investment for youth organisations and services. Arising from budget 2025, €84.9 million is being allocated for current and capital expenditure of youth services, an increase in funding of €7 million, or almost 9%, on the 2024 budget. In the period from 2021 to 2025, current Exchequer funding for youth services and programmes will have increased by more than 34%.

The additional funding secured in budget 2025 will support the sustainability of youth organisations, while also expanding youth work service capacity through the funding of new targeted youth services, as the Senator has mentioned. Crucially, the funding secured in budget 2025 will support the implementation of Opportunities for Youth: The National Strategy for Youth Work and Related Services 2024-2028. This strategy, which was positively received by the wider youth work sector, sets out Ireland's key ambitions for youth work and related services.It includes a clear set of strategic objectives and 18 priority actions intended to strengthen the role of youth work and related services in the lives of young people.

Funding will also support the UBU Your Place Your Space scheme, which targets disadvantaged young people with evidence-informed interventions and services that secure positive outcomes for young people. The overall allocation for UBU in 2024 was more than €48 million. This scheme will be the subject of a further annual increase in 2025. Additional youth funding that will enable the establishment of a further ten new UBU youth services over the course of next year was secured in budget 2025. These new services will provide targeted, youth-worker-led support to up to 1,000 disadvantaged young people where they are most needed.

Funding through the youth services grant scheme, which supports national youth organisations in delivering quality youth services across the State, will also be increased in 2025. The national youth organisations that support young people in their social and personal development include Foróige, Youth Work Ireland and BeLonG To, to name just three. In addition to increasing the funding provided to the existing national youth organisations, up to €1.5 million in funds has been allocated for the specific purpose of expanding the scheme to include additional national youth organisations during 2024 and 2025.

Furthermore, an additional €650,000 was allocated this year to the volunteer activation fund, which will continue, into 2025, to provide support to national youth organisations in recruiting, retaining and supporting volunteers. Importantly, funding will also be made available for the LGBTI+ youth fund, which will support initiatives that ensure that LGBTI+ young people are visible, included, and treated equally in their communities. This includes enhancing the capacity of youth work services to meet the needs of LGBTI+ young people, whether in dedicated groups or integrated settings, fully aligning with our opportunities for youth strategy.

A new pilot initiative will be implemented in 2025 to support selected youth services in providing meals during school holiday periods. This initiative, which is part of the Government's commitment to tackling holiday hunger, will help feed up to 1,000 young people aged ten to 18 years, who are at risk of not having access to a hot meal or any substantial meal during the official school closure times.

The Minister has also committed to continuing to fund the targeted youth employability support initiative that was launched this year to engage with and support harder-to-reach young people aged 15 to 24 who are not in employment, education or training. This initiative will receive €1 million in funding for 2025.

Capital funding of €1 million will be available for the benefit of young people in 2025, with €500,000 specifically earmarked for upgrading play and recreation facilities.

Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael)
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I know the Minister of State was handed a speech and had to read it out, but it was just a litany of back-patting for the Department as opposed to an exercise in engaging with the reality of what it is to run youth services. The things listed as being provided for are what we should be doing at the very least. An exceptional report was put forward by the committee. It referred to how crucial and lifesaving youth work is, yet, we are not funding it enough. We have pensions auto enrolment and sick leave deficits. The allocation for youth work has not increased with the costs incurred by employers, who, by definition, employ people. The Department is renowned for being tone deaf to the reality faced by service providers. It states that it is going to do this, it is providing funding, everything is great, it is great and it is really good at looking at what is involved. The reality on the ground is not being dealt with. It is not being fought for properly but it needs to be.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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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.