> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.dublininquirer.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# As communities grapple with kids at loose ends messing, government disappoints youth-work sector with budget offering
- URL: https://www.dublininquirer.com/as-communities-grapple-with-kids-at-loose-ends-messing-government-disappoints-youth-work-sector-with-meagre-budget-offering/
- Published: 2026-10-16T00:24:57.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-16T00:26:17.000Z
- Description: “It's extremely disappointing to hear once again that the children have been left short, and it's disappointing given the incredible work that the youth workers in the country do for us.”
- Author: Eoin Glackin
- Tags: Community Safety, kids, City Desk, Local Democracy Reporting Scheme

The National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI), which represents youth organisations nationwide, had [called](https://www.youth.ie/articles/youth-work-sector-calls-for-e27-3-million-investment-in-budget-2027-to-protect-services-for-young-people/?ref=dublininquirer.com) for an extra €27.3 million from Budget 2027, to protect existing youth services and do up the buildings where youth work takes place.

That included €13.5 million in current spending and €13.75 million in capital funding for safe and accessible youth spaces.

Youth work got much less than that, though.

This left a sense that it was not valued by government, says Amy Carey, CEO of the Solas Project, the Liberties-based youth organisation.

The NYCI request was based on the needs of existing services and the pressure on them to keep operating, rather than an ambitious expansion plan, said Carey. “It wasn’t a dramatic ask. It definitely was disappointing.”

It's especially disappointing given the rise in problem behaviour in parts of Dublin, with kids having little to do, says David Byrne, co-chairperson of Hartstown Huntstown FC, a team which plays and trains in Hartstown Park.

There has been a huge rise in “gangs” in and around Hartstown Park, he says. “And what we've also seen during that time and around the area is gangs circulating because they have nothing else to do.”

“It's extremely disappointing to hear once again that the children have been left short, and it's disappointing given the incredible work that the youth workers in the country do for us,” he says.

## Running to stay still

According to a [survey](https://www.youth.ie/articles/youth-work-sector-calls-for-e27-3-million-investment-in-budget-2027-to-protect-services-for-young-people/?ref=dublininquirer.com) carried out by the NYCI, which fed into its budget ask, about 77 percent of the 53 organisations it asked said they were concerned about having enough funding to provide services over the following year. 

Meanwhile, 85 percent reported that demand for their services had increased.

But rather than the requested €27.3 million, Budget 2027 gave an extra €7 million in current funding for youth services, which NYCI [said](https://www.youth.ie/articles/budget-2027-youth-work-investment-falls-far-short-of-securing-existing-services/?ref=dublininquirer.com) in a press release, "falls far short" of what is needed on the ground.

The Department of Education and Youth also highlighted €4 million in capital funding for improving youth service facilities under the National Development Plan. 

But in a statement posted online, the [NYCI said](https://www.youth.ie/articles/budget-2027-youth-work-investment-falls-far-short-of-securing-existing-services/?ref=dublininquirer.com) that money had already been announced previously and was re-announced on budget day, not a new response to its capital request.

Carey, CEO of the Solas Project, says the need and demand for youth work is double or triple what is currently provided for.

In an ideal world, youth work would receive enough funding to enable services to put more youth workers into communities and reach young people at risk of disengaging from school or becoming involved in antisocial behaviour, she said.

“We already have extensive waiting lists,” she says, “and these are the ones who are knocking on our door as opposed to us going and looking out for new people.”

Byrne, of Hartstown Huntstown FC, says there is an [ongoing issue](https://www.dublininquirer.com/in-hartstown-park-councillors-sound-alarm-over-growing-number-of-scramblers-2/) in Hartstown Park, where young people gather, hassle other park users and irresponsibly drive e-scooters and now-banned scramblers around the grounds.

While his football club doesn't benefit directly from funding for youth work, he says, he knows that some of their players have few outlets aside from their football sessions.

“And the youth programmes that they do partake in, are really important elements that they have as extracurricular activities in addition to the football,” he says.

Aidan Farrelly,Social Democrats TD and the party'syouth spokesperson, who is also a youth worker, says the sector never fully recovered from cuts made after the 2008 recession. 

Much of the funding sought was required simply to keep current services running, he says. “Nearly half of that, if not all, was just to stand still. That’s not to expand. That’s not to grow. That’s not to develop.”

## Staff and planning

[Strategy after](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28816982-sustainable-inclusive-and-empowered-communities-2019-to-2024/?ref=dublininquirer.com) [strategy for](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28816980-promoting-sustainable-inclusive-and-empowered-communities-2026-to-2030/?ref=dublininquirer.com) the community sector in Ireland in recent years has mentioned the need to look at multi-annual funding, so those working in the sector can plan long-term.

That's [mentioned in the](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28816970-c6763ae3-opportunities-for-youth-national-strategy-for-youth-work-and-related-services/?ref=dublininquirer.com) current National Youth Strategy, too.

It was a key theme in the consultation for the strategy, it says. "Increased and multi-annual investment is needed in order to enable more young people to access high-quality youth work services with an expanded range of programmes and activities."

But the youth work profession has taken a knock in the latest budget, says Farrelly, who just completed a PhD in youth work at Maynooth University. 

Precarious state investment takes its toll on the sector, he said. “You've got a huge part of the workforce that have to leave to find more sustainable employment, to apply for mortgages."

“I've done my research with youth workers around the country, and it was a quantitative piece and a qualitative piece, and it was remarkable how satisfied youth workers are in terms of the work that they do,” he says.

“They love their work, and I would contend that being a youth worker is the best job in the world, to be honest,” he says.

“But the lack of support from a financial perspective is an insult,” he says, “and it's being perceived as an insult by youth workers.”

Councillor Daithí Doolan of Sinn Féin, who works as a key worker in a community-based drug rehabilitation project, said services need multiannual funding to meet demand and rebuild after recession-era cuts.

"We were coming out of last year with over €9 billion surplus in the budget, and yet again, we see youth work, mental health services, addiction services, youth justice services, diversion programmes – all those key services got crumbs off the table yet again," he says.

“Blame young people, but don’t fund anything,” Doolan says. “You give out about young people but never resource their services.”

Doolan says if you scratch under the surface of the total funding allocated to youth services, some of that will be pilot schemes, once-offs. “It's not multiannual.”

He points to a pilot scheme in Ballyfermot a few years ago which saw a youth psychologist being made available in the area – to good results. But, he says, they were gone after the year.

“So, you invest in our young people, and then a year later you shut down the programme again, and that's the problem – once-off funding as opposed to multiannual funding,” he says. “You have pilot schemes to beat the band. We love pilot schemes in Ireland.”

For young people in communities that are marginalised, pilot schemes, though better than nothing, can barely make a dent in the complex issues at play, he says.

## Priorities

Youth work, funded by the Department of Education, is preventative. It catches youngsters before they become involved in crime or [anti-social behaviour.](https://www.dublininquirer.com/councillors-differ-on-how-to-respond-right-now-to-anti-social-behaviour-by-kids/)

It is separate from youth justice work, funded by the Department of Justice, which kicks in when a young person has engaged in offending behaviour.

Youth services received €94.1 million in current and capital funding in 2026\. Budget 2027’s additional €7 million in current funding brings the implied overall allocation to €101.1 million, including the previously announced €4 million in capital funding.

An additional €11.5 million was given to "youth justice initiatives" in Budget 2027, [according](https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-justice-home-affairs-and-migration/press-releases/minister-jim-ocallaghan-secures-investment-of-59bn-for-the-justice-sector-in-2027/?ref=dublininquirer.com) to the Department of Justice, bringing total funding to almost €50 million.

In response to the tragic crash on the M9 in August – when five teenage boys were killed when the BMW in which they were travelling in the wrong direction on the M9 collided head-on with a car carrying three women and a seven-year-old boy, all of whom were seriously injured – Fianna Fáil's Jim O’Callaghan, the Minister for Justice, said that some youths were very hard to [reach](https://www.thejournal.ie/1000-teens-out-of-reach-of-youth-diversion-programme-7141530-Aug2026/?ref=dublininquirer.com).

Carey says she has seen through their work – including their youth justice strand, the Rua programme – that “there's no young person who's unreachable”.

There are young people who are more extreme in their offending behaviour, she said, “and that's where youth justice should be focused”.

But, she says, "rather than investing in early intervention for youth justice, my belief is that that money would be much better used to support community youth work.”

Farrelly,the Social Democrats TD and youth spokesperson, says that being a youth worker is a fun, challenging, and rewarding job.

“I spent 10 years telling my wife that I'm not just getting good at pool or PlayStation,” he said on Thursday. While his pool game did indeed improve, there was always a professional reason for it, he says.

“That's your curriculum,” he says. “That's where you get those conversations with young people going, and ultimately that's where you get to challenge and question some of those, kind of norms that evolve out of nowhere.”

New trends, some highly toxic like videos racing stolen cars, can evolve fast these days on social media, he says, and if young people don’t have a space to talk about it, challenge it, or see it from a different perspective, “then that's how it just gets reinforced”.

*Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.*