Departmental Strategies
Dail Éireann — 2025-07-17
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Jen Cummins (SD), Dublin South-Central

Youth work is indeed fundamental to our society. I stand here as a TD who came through youth work and youth theatre. I was a youth worker for a very long time. I see in my community the importance of youth work. Responsibility for youth has come within the remit of the Department. We very much need to keep it as a priority. There is a lot in education, and I would not like youth work, in all its guises, to be forgotten.
I would love to hear more about timelines. When we plan and do new things, there is a lot of consultation. It is great the Minister recognises that there is a recruitment and retention issue regarding youth workers. A large amount of work goes into applying for funding for youth work organisations, and it takes away from the work that youth workers can do on the ground. I would love to see the funding become multi-annual. Everything comes back to the young person. I would love to hear more about timelines from the Minister.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-07-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:00:58+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-07-17