Youthreach participants ‘denied support’

Niall Murray, Education Correspondent

Irish Vocational Education Association (IVEA) president Mary Bohan said 80% of those on Youthreach programmes have special educational needs or significant emotional and behavioural difficulties. The association represents the country’s 33 VECs whose work includes the operation of most Youthreach services, catering for around 3,300 people aged between 15 and 20.

“These young people are of normal school-going age, they have precisely the same entitlements as do other children in schools. But they do not have access to appropriate services and this is not right,” Ms Bohan told the IVEA annual congress in Tullow, Co Carlow.