Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

622. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth further to Parliamentary Question No. 567 of 15 October 2024, whether the €3.1 million mentioned is to support the Department’s remit for the participation of children and young people in youth work, or if it is to support the Department’s remit for the participation of children and young people in decision-making; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42782/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Further to my response to Parliamentary Question No. 576 of 15 October 20244, I wish to advise the Deputy that the €3.1m of current funding secured in Budget 2025 referred to in the response, is to support my department’s remit for the participation of children and young people in decision-making.

As previously advised, this funding will enable my department to implement, inter alia, the ambitious Participation of Children and Young People in Decision-making Action Plan 2024-2028.

The implementation of this action plan will support:

• Wider recognition and implementation of the right of children and young people to participate in decisions that affect their lives.
• Our local level (the Comhairle na nÓg local youth council network) and national level (the National Youth Assembly of Ireland, Dáil na nÓg and the National Executive of Comhairle) participation structures to operate and develop to realise the right of all children and young people to have a say in important decisions that will impact their lives.
• The participation of seldom-heard and vulnerable children and young people in decision-making by identifying and establishing mechanisms and pathways for their participation.
• Capacity building training to equip those working with and for children and young people to undertake meaningful consultations with children and young people is developed and rolled out.