2026-02-25

I want to raise the decision by the Department not to award funding to the Ballyfermot Youth Service under this year's community safety innovation fund. It is a service that for the past two years has been supported by the innovation fund to employ three highly effective staff members, namely, two workers based in the adventure centre and skate park and a dedicated psychotherapist providing essential mental health support to our vulnerable young people. Unfortunately, Ballyfermot is an area with a high prevalence of suicide among young men. These vital posts are, therefore, vital and working hard for the community. I visited the project recently and want to put on record how impressive it is. You walk into the beautiful skate park that has been there for a while and there is not one bit of graffiti. It is minded so well by the boys and the local community. It is a beacon of hope and a fantastic park. People come from all over Dublin to see it and skate on it. It is a community hub. Every afternoon it is full of young people. What makes it special is it is not just a facility; people are building relationships with the staff and with each other. The staff know the risks. They know who is struggling at home, who needs guidance and who to pull aside for help and community support. It is a preventative-type relationship. It is relationship based. The essence of the project is community safety. Over the past two years, the funding has enabled diversion from antisocial behaviour. It is just the tip of the iceberg but it has reduced engagement by kids with scramblers and in street disorder and has created a structured, safe environment for young people who might otherwise be on the margins. The psychotherapist post has been vital. Many of these young people do not have anywhere else to go. Mental health crises are on the rise and early intervention in a trusted youth-friendly setting is not something I would like to see lost. Previous Ministers have visited the area and used the skate park because it makes for good pictures with politicians. The fact it was not funded again was pretty devastating for the centre. The Minister has to come out. I am inviting him out to see the skate park and the work being done. I saw first hand how that work strengthens the community and the engagement with social workers on site. Without this funding, two front-line posts will be lost within weeks. This places the entire project at risk. Because the staff are there and the children are attending, the place is kept immaculate. Will the Minister review this? It is essential. We speak in this House about early intervention and diversion, especially in relation to disadvantaged areas. We speak about community partnerships. I can say hand on my heart that this project is delivering for young boys and young men in Ballyfermot. Will the Minister consider the decision in relation to the Ballyfermot youth centre, or identify an alternative funding mechanism, ideally on a multi-annual basis, to ensure these posts and this centre can thrive? I extend a sincere invitation to him to visit the service. We might get him on a skateboard. It is something he needs to see and appreciate to get a proper vision of what is going on here.

I thank Deputy Ardagh for raising this important issue. I am aware of the outstanding work Ballyfermot Youth Service does. I know it from talking to the Deputy and other representatives and from my own general knowledge in respect of it. I want to see that excellent work continue. Before I came in here this morning, I had a look at the website for Ballyfermot Youth Service and I could see the extent of the outstanding work it does for youths in the community. The Deputy's concern is about funding that previously came to the Ballyfermot Youth Service from the community safety fund, particularly regarding the skate park and the psychotherapist posts. Before responding to that, I will bluntly state that I will take up her invitation. I will come out to the skate park. I will not get on a skateboard but I will certainly come out to see it. The Deputy will be aware the community safety fund has been an important part of the State's response to ensuring we have community safety. The then Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Michael McGrath, permitted the establishment of this fund in 2022, along with the then Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee. Proceeds of crime seized by CAB are partially invested back into the community through the fund. Since 2022, over 127 community safety projects across Ireland have benefited from the fund. In 2025, I achieved allocation of a budget of €4.4 million to it. For 2026, I achieved a further increase to a figure in the region of €4.75 million. This reflects the importance of the fund and why it is so necessary. When I get money into the fund, I seek to distribute it so as to ensure communities affected by criminal activity predominantly see the benefit. That is why the fund has been used so well in supporting projects addressing youth engagement, domestic violence, restorative justice and substance abuse. I agree with the Deputy that the funding of the skate park and psychotherapist post show the fund is playing an essential part in Ballyfermot in terms of what it seeks to do. I have to point out, however, that the purpose of the community safety fund is not to provide repeated, consistent, annual funding. Because it is a limited and small fund, the objective is to pick projects in areas of disadvantage around the country and provide funding for individual projects. It is important to say it is not intended to provide long-term or continuous funding for projects. Nonetheless, I am conscious of the valuable role of the Ballyfermot Youth Service. It clearly delivers important supports throughout the community. I urge Ballyfermot Youth Service to engage with the national community office in my Department and get an assessment of the application process. Obviously, it did it before and was successful in its applications on two occasions. I think it got funding of €150,000 for 2025. I ask the service to engage with my Department. The community safety fund application process will be opening up again this year.

I thank the Minister for agreeing to come out to the skate park. We know early intervention is far more effective and less costly than dealing with problems once they escalate. The Minister stated correctly the fund is to be put back into communities where there is drug-related crime and high-level antisocial behaviour. This is one such community. The service has benefited massively from the innovation fund and is grateful for that. It has worked well but needs to continue. It is really unfair. They are given resources to set up a service that is working well and doing what we all want to see happen. In an area like this, we want to see kids diverted from antisocial behaviour and given proper and targeted mental health supports. Then the rug is pulled from under them. I understand the fund was not created to give services multi-annual funding but we need to look at a multi-annual funding approach for services like this. They will absolutely engage with the community office in the Department, but is there any alternative source of funding? It is a perfect project for the Department of justice. It is effective and accomplished in furthering the ambitions the Department has in relation to youth diversion. I ask the Minister to look at the project and see what can be done to give it secure funding. I meet a lot of staff in these services and every year they are fighting for funding to keep open, when they really want to be working and delivering their service. We need to look at funding these services on a multi-annual basis. This is the only way we will tackle disadvantage in many parts of our city, including the Minister's area.

I agree with the Deputy. It is an essential part of ensuring we get youth diversion from criminal activity that we put in place facilities and services for young people. We had a very important discussion in this Chamber recently about scramblers and how young men and boys were using them, but we need to try to provide alternative avenues and opportunities for people to engage in certain types of activities of interest to them. I fully appreciate the skate park is something Ballyfermot Youth Services wants to see continue. I want to see it continue just as much as the Deputy does. I will engage with officials in my Department in respect of it. I just want to be careful about giving false hope that this can be sorted out this year in the short term. I am going to come out to the skate park and get an update from officials in respect of what is available. We can engage with other ministerial colleagues as well to see if any other emergency funds are available for the purpose of such essential community projects as the skate park. I do have to just emphasise again the purpose of the community safety fund. It is a small fund, only €4.5 million. I am hoping to get it up even further than that this year. The fund tries to pick deserving projects around the country doing very useful work to ensure that communities are safe, particularly communities disadvantaged as a result of criminal activity. If I get into the trend of saying we have set multi-annual funding that is always going to come from the fund, the application process and the diversity of the fund will be altered. I do hear what the Deputy is saying in respect of the importance of the skate park and the psychotherapist role. I will engage with officials in my Department and continue to engage with the Deputy. I look forward very much to coming out to Ballyfermot skate park.

I thank the Minister. I suppose the fund is a victim of its own success when it is creating these fantastic services that people want to see continue. I welcome the engagement the Minister will have with his Department in relation to this issue and that he will come out to visit the skate park. I want to mention as well that the facility has a programme for young people and children with disabilities. It has a cycling programme on every summer, which I think is highly commendable.

I apologise to Deputy Ardagh because I missed her second contribution. That concludes her Topical Issue question. I thank her. Before we proceed, I thank the Minister very much for his constituency visit with me last week. It went down very well. I very much appreciate him taking the time to come to meet the Youghal Socio-Economic Development Group.