Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 25 February 2026
133. Deputy Aisling Dempsey asked the Minister for Education and Youth when the youth information policy review will conclude; the changes which are envisaged for omnichannel delivery (details supplied) to meet current demand and misinformation challenges; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15459/26]
View answerIn 2026, €1.557 million has been allocated by the Department of Education and Youth to fund youth information centres through the education and training boards. Twenty of these centres are based in youth services across the country. The remaining centre is spunout.ie, which provides youth information online.
These youth information centres provide young people with a trusted source of information on rights, opportunities, health, wellbeing, welfare and other matters, and are a means by which they can find their way to more specialised help when they need it.
spunout.ie also hosts an online youth information chat service, staffed by youth information workers across the network of Youth Information Centres, which enables young people to reach professional youth information workers without physically visiting a youth information centre.
The department is currently reviewing youth information policy to ensure that it remains up-to-date and relevant to the lives and information needs of today’s young people. Given the scale and pace of the changes in the information ecosystem that young people inhabit, including such challenges as misinformation and the advent of artificial intelligence, this is a complex topic and significant work remains to be done to determine an appropriate structure for delivery of youth information going forward.
