Fianna Fáil TD for Roscommon/Galway Eugene Murphy has welcomed the news that the Galway and Roscommon Education and Training Board will be providing a range of youth services on an interim basis following the withdrawal of funding to Youth Work Ireland for a number of projects across Roscommon/East Galway.
Deputy Murphy attended a special meeting of the GRETB in Roscommon Town on Friday morning for Oireachtas members when CEO David Leahy confirmed that the organisation would be providing limited services in the coming weeks following the vacuum which was created after funding was withdrawn from Youth Work Ireland.
“It was a very positive meeting and Mr Leahy confirmed that the Department had been in contact and that limited services would be up and running in the coming weeks. The issue was with the quality of services being provided by Youth Work Ireland and GRETB will now provide services on an interim basis for six months and there will be a complete analysis carried out on the provision of youth service for the county. The GRETB are keen to look at this as a good news story with a new start and that’s fair enough but we need to guarantee that there is not a watered down or diluted provision of services to young people who really relied heavily upon the existing services.
In the region of 120 young people a day used the services of The Phoenix Centre in Ballaghaderreen while the youth diversion project and the youth information centre in Roscommon Town was also very popular. I welcome the positive attitude of the CEO of GRETB towards this new arrangements and I hope that the same quality of services and facilities are back up and running as soon as possible for young people throughout the region,” said Deputy Murphy.
