Investment in Youth Work: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-15 ============================================================ Gareth Scahill (FG), Nominated by the Taoiseach The Minister is very welcome back to the Chamber. I also welcome Mary O’Reilly who has strong Roscommon links. I know she is the backbone to Senator O’Reilly. I welcome the motion from my Sinn Féin colleagues. We all know the importance of youth work. We know how it is preventative and how early intervention is very important in reducing long-term costs in health, justice and social protection. We also have to acknowledge that about 450,000 young people engage with youth services nationally every year. The work is important in terms of mental health support, social inclusion, equality, preventing early school leaving and supporting vulnerable and marginalised individuals. Since the Minister has taken over this portfolio, she has increased funding in this sector. As Senator Curley mentioned, more than €90 million has been invested, which is a €4.5 million increase on last year. Capital funding has increased by €3.5 million, bringing it to a total of €4 million. We are, therefore, investing in this area. We have identified the problem. We on the education and youth committee are probably not giving the youth element as much time as we should, and maybe that is something that we as representatives on that committee should probably focus on. I had the privilege last summer of visiting one of the UBU centres in Athlone with the Minister's predecessor. It was concerned with the summer meals programme. While it is still in a pilot phase, it was making an impact on the community in Athlone. I welcome that the pilot programme has been extended and further invested in. A total of 3,200 students have been supported through that scheme. The Minister has increased the funding from €500,000 to €600,000. The programme is working, we are going to get more students through it and it is going to make an impact. We have to be happy any time we can engage with more young people. The budget for UBU centres is just under €55 million and the initiative reaches just under 92,000 young people annually. We are addressing disadvantaged, marginalised and the most at-risk young people. It is not like we are not listening to these people regularly. Today alone, we had briefings from the Comhairle na nÓg in Roscommon on a scheme for early intervention in mental health issues. It is a scheme where the students came up with the solution themselves. It is a listening and support service undertaken by youth workers dedicating specific hours to specific students weekly. The cost of the pilot programme being proposed was about €170,000, and that was to deal with all the students in Roscommon alone. It is something we will come back to the Minister on at a later stage. I have the group’s Listen Link promotional book for her to have a look at some time. Additionally, Senator Cosgrove had a briefing from ATU Sligo student union concerning the lack of student accommodation. This is an issue causing stress and mental health issues for younger people before they even go to third level institutes. There was a good attendance at that meeting too. It is about us as public representatives going in, listening to these issues and seeing how we can address them. Following that, as we heard already, Youth Work Ireland had a briefing in the Freemasons' Hall. It was great to see the number of representatives who went to that meeting because each of us has our own individual issues in our own areas. Who better to give us that information than the youth services working in those areas? I commend Youth Work Ireland, Foróige and the National Youth Council of Ireland on all the work they are doing on the ground. One of the schemes I love to see invested in is Youth Night. It is one of these publicity nights, but it is also a way of bringing in people from all types of cultures, showing them the opportunities and what can be done when their kids are given the chance. Senator Curley mentioned the ETBs and how he was involved in the Galway-Roscommon ETB previously. He should be probably less involved in Roscommon in future. I visited some of the events on Youth Night. Students from lots of different demographic backgrounds were putting on performances that they would not have had the opportunity to put on if we were not investing in programmes like Youth Night. A lot has been done. The fact the Minister is increasing the funding in all these areas is welcome. The sky is the limit in what we can do in this area. As the fact that we are all supporting this motion shows, it is going to take cross-party and cross-House engagement. I think we should all look at ourselves to see what we can do from there. I thank the Minister. --- 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