Community Development Projects
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-26
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Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central

Deputy Ward raises an interesting point. Sometimes we miss that cohort of young people. Rightly, we focus on men's sheds, women's sheds, older people's social services and that integration piece. As we saw today in the announcement by the Minister, Deputy Calleary, of the CCIF, the community centre is the hub and the visible piece that leads to the ongoing delivery of integrated supports, which directly reduces social exclusion for older people, in particular. The Deputy made a good point. Perhaps working with the Ministers, Deputies Foley, Calleary and Naughton, we can look at a further model in terms of what we are already doing. Let us be honest - we need to listen and engage all the time. We have an ongoing conversation around online safety for young people but there is a piece in particular post-Covid where demand continues to grow in our Department, reflecting the complexity of life today in communities. I am open to the conversation around what structures and supports we can put in place for that younger age group, perhaps working at a cross-department level. The Deputy's points are very well made.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:47+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-26