Investment in Youth Work: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-15 ============================================================ Mary Fitzpatrick (FF), Industrial and Commercial Panel I thank the Minister for coming in for this motion. I want to commend the Sinn Féin Senators on bringing the motion forward. Not every person is born equal and not every person is lucky in the lottery of birth. The circumstances someone is born into can be greatly enhanced if they have the opportunity to have access to good schools and a good community. Youth services are an essential part of that. Youth services provide young people with the capacity to develop their confidence and life skills and to learn life skills in a safe space. I want to commend the Minister and her Department on the funding they have secured and on the support they are giving to youth services around the country. Going back 18 years, myself and others founded a youth service in Cabra, Cabra for Youth. We are one of the independent youth services operating in the capital. Cabra for Youth grew out of the community. With the support of CDYS and now funding from the Minister’s Department but also the Department of justice, we operate both a UBU and a Department of justice programme. Therefore it is unique. It is allows us to do both targeted and more universal work. I would welcome a visit by the Minister if she ever had time. We would love for her to visit and to share with her our experiences. Over the 18 years, some of the first people we engaged with are now young adults and some of them are parents themselves. It is incredible to see those humans develop and grow and come back and participate. It is really important. I do not think we, as a society, have historically or traditionally understood youth services but I believe the Minister does value and understand them. It is complementary to our education system, our families and broader society. I have a couple of asks. I want to acknowledge the increase in funding which the Minister did secure in the budget. The €90 million is significant. However, I would say, as a voluntary director on a youth service board, the costs of operating youth services have only increased right across the board. For the sector to be sustainable we really need multi-annual funding. Every year I have heartache thinking about whether we will get our allocation and how much of an allocation we will get. We have gone through some very dark times. We had to put our youth workers on a four-day week at one point when things were economically bad but we managed to sustain the service. It continues and has gone from strength to strength. When we can pool funding from both the Minister’s Department and the Department of justice, it allows us to really maximise the services. When we see young people discussing things like bullying or sexuality, learning barbering or bike skills, or learning to cook for each other, we see them develop in front of our eyes. It is invaluable. Our staff are incredible but as a sector, professional youth workers are not adequately valued. The fact that there is no multi-annual funding inhibits career development, retention and recruitment, as the Senator mentioned. Recruitment is a constant struggle. We are lucky to have full employment in this country, and we are privileged to have an economy that is strong. We can invest and we should invest so that every young person has access. Not every young person will avail of it but every young person should have access to youth services that are both universal and targeted. On the age cohort, it is not the same in every community but in some communities there is a need for young people from the age of eight years to be engaged. Some families really need that extra help. For others, the need will not come until much later when they are teens or maybe early 20s. It is about adequately resourcing it. I commend the Minister and her Department on the work they are doing. I would welcome it if the Minister wished to visit. Most importantly, I ask her to use her office to engage the Government to continue to invest in and expand youth services. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-15/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:48+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-15