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

What Cork City Council has done on the nighttime economy with no-alcohol cafés for young people is an example the Government as a whole must look at. Our Department has a variety of schemes and programmes that reflect the whole ethos of what the Deputy is trying to achieve. I am open in terms of eligibility criteria in the new call for applications under a variety of schemes, such as the CSP or SICAP, to looking at how we can broaden the remit while mindful that we do not have an infinite budget and will have loads of applications. We need to have a conversation as we emerge from Covid and in a new world around our attitudes to alcohol and online. What the Deputy is saying reflects a new Ireland. We must open to engaging and putting a new structure in place. I would be happy to sit down with the Deputy further and engage on that. I do not want to speak for the Minister but I am sure he would also be open to having that conversation.
We must look at how we can allow these young people to make a contribution and have them involved and engaged in our community networks and, as Deputy Ward said, not just forget them, think they are all being looked after and that they have migrated to an online space that is very difficult, truculent and complex. The points Deputy Ward has made are worth considering and I certainly look forward to further engagement with him on it.

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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