2026-04-21

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on the vital work that Youth Work Ireland is carrying out in communities across the south east. This is also a time to speak on the pressing challenges facing youth workers. Youth Work Ireland represents 20 youth services across the State. They are our front-line services. They are in our communities working as mentors and positive role models in the lives of children and teenagers who are missing those crucial factors. They tackle the root cause of antisocial behaviour rather than simply punishing it. This is the principle of diversion in action, that is, giving a young person a second chance rather than a criminal record. Despite this vital work, these groups are left scrambling for funding from left, right and centre, year after year. How can any group effectively plan for long-term development when working off 12-month funding cycles? The Government needs to stop viewing youth service as a cost or expenditure. It must view it for what it really is; an investment. It is an investment with significant short-term supports but enormous long-term returns. It builds social cohesion, reduces antisocial behaviour, guides young people towards contributing positively to the community and reduces the burden on An Garda Síochána and the fire services. I will use Ferrybank, not far from my home, as an example. Last summer, the fire service was called out almost daily to deal with antisocial behaviour activities. I do not need to remind the Minister about how stretched our front-line services are. Whatever we can do to ease that pressure must be explored. Proper funding to deal with rising costs and a statutory pay scale for all State-funded youth workers are two measures that would make a meaningful impact. Has the Minister’s Department looked at these proposals? Is she willing to implement them?

Front-line youth workers are being asked to carry more and more of the burden with less and less. They are dealing every day with the real pressures facing young people, such as mental health challenges, online harm and misinformation, social isolation and increasingly visible antisocial behaviour. In Waterford, we are seeing that play out in very real terms with the lighting of fires in parts of Waterford city, and most recently in the Gallowshill area of Dungarvan, along with the growing misuse of nitrous oxide, an issue that is being consistently flagged by my colleague, Councillor Kate O’Mahoney, and Deputy Mark Ward, who has moved legislation in this regard. These are symptoms of a deep failure by a Government that frankly no longer gives a crap. Youth work is one of the most effective tools we have to intervene early, build trust and empower and equip young people with the skills and confidence to navigate the world they are growing up in but it is being undermined by Government failure. Recruitment and retention is now a serious problem. Skilled, committed youth workers are leaving because pay and conditions do not reflect the value or demands of the role. That is not sustainable. Services are also struggling under chronic underfunding. Rising costs, increased demand and the uncertainty of funding streams are making long-term planning almost impossible. There is a clear deficit in infrastructure. Too many communities do not have proper youth spaces and that has been allowed to persist for years. Youth Work Ireland set this out clearly when I and many other Deputies met it last week. Proper funding, fair pay through a statutory scale and a capital programme for facilities are needed. The Minister will no doubt point to strategy in her response but strategy without delivery or funding does not support a single young person. We need investment, certainty and a recognition that youth work is not optional. In fact, for many of the communities that I and many other Deputies in this House represent, it is utterly essential.

I thank the Deputies for raising this issue. Supporting youth work is a critical aspect of what we do as a Government to support our young people. I thank both Deputies for the opportunity to set out the position with regard to youth work provision and funding provided to Youth Work Ireland from my Department. Youth work services deliver high-quality youth work and non-formal developmental opportunities to young people aged between ten and 24 across Ireland every year. Approximately 450,000 young people participate in youth work services annually. Since 2020, Government investment in youth services has risen from €62.3 million to €90.1 million in 2026. Under the national development plan, €4 million in capital funding will be allocated annually to youth services from 2026 to 2030, providing multiyear certainty for the first time. This allows better long-term planning, investment and value for money. Youth Work Ireland is a key organisation in the sector. It provides youth work to tens of thousands of young people across the country. Its importance is reflected in the support provided by the Department of Education and Youth via multiple funding streams. Over €2.8 million has been allocated to Youth Work Ireland under the youth services grant scheme in 2026, representing a 28% increase since 2020. Youth Work Ireland has also received funding for specific projects under the youth climate justice fund, the volunteer activation fund, and the youth services capital fund. Youth Work Ireland and its member services play a key role in the delivery of targeted youth work interventions. Over €12 million has been allocated to Youth Work Ireland member organisations to deliver targeted youth work in 2026 under the UBU Your Place, Your Space scheme. With this funding, the Department of Education and Youth continues to support existing youth services and youth organisations, including Youth Work Ireland, while also enabling the expansion of both targeted and universal services for young people. Youth workers and volunteers are essential to the delivery of quality youth services. The Department is also progressing a workforce development strategy in recognition of the need to support the workforce and the youth work sector to ensure that they can continue to provide high-quality, accessible and inclusive youth work opportunities for young people. I sincerely thank youth workers and employers for the high level of participation in the workforce survey process. The analysis and responses will be extremely useful in informing the strategy's development. Consultations are scheduled to take place in multiple locations around the country during May and June to engage further with youth workers and employers in order to build on the data available through the youth workers and employers survey. Just this week, my officials presented some top-level findings from the surveys at the Inspiring Future Youth Workers seminar that was organised by the National Youth Council of Ireland and funded by my Department under the Bonn process.

There is a double standard in the area of youth work that cannot be ignored. In Dublin, staff are on a far better wage agreement. Youth workers outside Dublin are being left behind despite doing the same job, often in more isolated areas and for significantly less pay. Many are trained up by the local services only to leave for other agencies because of better pay standards. How can the Minister stand over this double standard and treatment? If someone is doing the work, they should be treated and paid equally, regardless of where they are based. Instead, many outside of Dublin receive increments only once every three years if they are lucky. Will the Minister commit to ending this geographic double standard?

I note the Minister's response and thank her for it. The difficulty is not the absence of strategy, it is the absence of delivery. We see the results of the workforce survey. There is also the workforce development strategy that is taking place at the moment. This is another case of too little too late. The issues in terms of recruitment and retention are not new. In many cases, they have always been thus. However, they have accelerated and worsened since the economic crash in 2008 and 2009 and the years of austerity that followed. Youth services have never fully recovered from all the cuts that were imposed by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael-led Governments since then. What we need to see now is parity between the remuneration offered to youth workers working in the community in voluntary organisations and that of employees doing similar work, and, in many cases, with similar qualifications and similar demands on their time, in the public sector. That is a method we can use to maybe keep people in jobs where they are at the coalface and are doing front-line work that is so valuable in all our communities.

I thank the Deputies for raising those issues. Youth workers are employed directly by individual youth organisations. They are not public servants. Their terms and conditions, including pay, are set by those organisations. My Department provides grant funding for the provision of youth services to the organisations in question to meet the needs of young people. It does not directly employ youth workers or set the terms and conditions of employment. My Department is aware that pension provisions across the sector are inconsistent. Some youth organisations have established pension schemes but others have not. The additional current funding that is being provided as part of budget 2026 will help youth organisations to manage the pressures on them, including the costs arising, for example, from pension obligations. Current funding of €90.1 million will be available this year. That represents a 5%, or €4.5 million, increase on the 2025 allocation. The results of the survey will be analysed. My Department is progressing the workforce development strategy in recognition of the important work that the workforce does within the youth sector. There is also a fund relating to volunteerism, and there is the activation fund. There is €20 million in capital funding allocated to youth services as part of the national development plan. My Department is working with other Departments, including the Department of Children, local authorities and the ETBs, in the area of capital projects. The workforce survey will be really important in the context of informing our work. The consultations will form a key part of that work. I assure the Deputies that this is a key priority. We have increased capital and current funding. I want to continue to do that and to work with and listen to the sector. I know the importance of youth work across the country.