Dáil Éireann Debate, Friday - 3 December 2021
11. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his Department will consider engaging with an organisation (details supplied) with a view to seeing how youth and sports organisations can best collaborate into the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59375/21]
View answerWhat level of collaboration is there between sporting organisations and Sport Ireland and youth services? What benefits can be leveraged from the footprints that sporting organisations have throughout the country in terms of communities? What benefits could that have for youth services?
Sporting activity has an important role to play in the development of young people and addressing many of their needs. The programmes offered by various Departments can collectively offer that kind of holistic response to the needs of young people. The infrastructure of youth services across the country that are funded by my Department includes the 30 national youth organisations, a significant number of local clubs and the youth function of the education and training boards. It works closely with agencies and local organisations, including many sporting bodies, on areas of mutual interest. I and my officials are always happy to engage with any organisation that is interested in our policy role.
At national level, my Department participates in an interdepartmental sports leadership group chaired by the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, which oversees the implementation of the national sports policy. The Sports Action Plan 2021-23 published by the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, in recent days includes actions to increase participation in sport by young people. One key action is the convening of a youth-centred stakeholder forum in early 2022. Youth organisations will be consulted as part of this process.
UBU: Your Place, Your Space is the main scheme for youth services funded by my Department. The scheme provides out-of-school supports to marginalised, disadvantaged or vulnerable young people to enable them to achieve their full potential. It recognises that youth services engage with young people through a wide range of activities that may include drama, music and sport, for example. In addition, there are some legacy sport-related supports that meet the criteria of UBU: Your Place, Your Space and they have continued to be funded on that basis. I am happy to continue to engage across Government on the issue of support for youth and sport, and my Department will always work collaboratively with youth organisations and agencies such as Sport Ireland to advance this.
I thank the Minister. I appreciate the reply. I acknowledge the wonderful work that is done by sporting organisations across all sporting disciplines, as well as youth services around the country. They make a massive difference in people's lives. I tabled this question because I think there is potential to do more in terms of using the capital and community infrastructure that is in place in the context of the sporting world to try to provide even more services in areas where there are no services outside the immediate primary sporting function of organisations. I am cognisant of the fact that many young people are not engaged in sport. How do we provide services for such young people? At present, if they are not engaged in sport, there is very little else for them. Can we leverage the network of sporting organisations around the country to create something for those young people and include them, although not in the primary sporting sense? A holistic inclusion model would be very achievable, given the massive networks that exist in every community.
Speaking as one who was not hugely involved in sport as a young person, what my Department seeks to offer is alternatives for young people who are not as interested in team sports in particular as some other young people, but who want to have that element of social development that, for many young people, is filled by sports. It is really important for us to get that balance to encourage young people to do what they want and to support them. I think all present agree that trying to leverage young people into anything they do not want to do is absolutely not the right way to go. The point made by the Deputy in respect of the availability of locations and buildings is a really valuable one. I understand the Deputy will raise at a later stage the issue of capital funding for youth services. Securing premises for usage is always an issue and there may well be things that can be done in that regard. Youth services and sport probably have the same busy times but there may be something we could do to leverage the use of community space.
I will give the Minister an example from my constituency. The local GAA club in a rapidly growing village is seeking to build new clubhouses and dressing rooms. It is very open and recognises that, apart from its sports club, there is very little for young people to do in the locality. Right now, it is very open to the concept of building the clubhouses but including in that new development a space that can be used for young people who may not be interested in playing Gaelic football or hurling to come in and be part of the community, develop as young adults, enjoy themselves and have a place to go at weekends and during school holidays and all of that. That is not really recognised in the capital schemes as they are currently set up. The sports capital programme is brilliant and there is space for collaboration and joint applications, but something specifically and formally organised between the Minister's Department and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media would be really beneficial and progressive.
It would try to capture those children, and there are many such children, who do not engage in sport. They are just not interested in it and it is not their thing, but they feel very much excluded because of that.
The approach that is being adopted in the village the Deputy is talking about is a really interesting one and could have genuine benefits. We are aware that the difficulty in securing capital for community buildings is a major issue for so many community organisations, be they sports clubs, youth services or more general kinds of groups. I would certainly be happy to talk to the Department responsible for sport about what could be done to make it easier for the two areas to come together. In my local authority area, Fingal County Council is building community centres that may have sport and childcare elements, but also a youth services element. When the process is being led by the local authority, it may have a more rounded sense, but if sports organisations show leadership in the way the Deputy described, it is valuable.
