All roads led to Galway for the first Fórsa Youth meeting of 2026. As Fórsa Youth continues to advocate for young workers, this meeting marked an important step in the ongoing effort to address the challenges that young people face in today's rapidly changing world.  

This year, a central priority for the committee is housing, which has become an increasingly pressing concern for young workers. In an effort to better understand and tackle this issue, Fórsa Youth has been working on a comprehensive policy paper on housing, researched and written by Chair Hugh McInerney, with comments and suggestions from the executive committee.  

The committee was thrilled to welcome Professor Padraic Kenna, an academic in the fields of land/property law and housing law at the University of Galway. Professor Kenna provided invaluable feedback on the policy paper, sparking a lively and thought-provoking discussion among the group.  

His insights have proven essential as Fórsa Youth fine-tunes its approach to housing policy, and the committee is hopeful that the policy paper will be ready for presentation at the upcoming biennial conference in May. 

Following the discussion on housing, director of training Fiona Dunne outlined various training options available to Fórsa Youth reps, while national secretary Catherine Keogh shared her expertise on motions and the union conference process. Her contribution was instrumental in helping the committee prepare for the biennial conference, offering practical advice on how to best navigate the motions. Fórsa Youth look forward to putting forward motions that will both strengthen the role of the committee and build on our housing priority. 

The next Fórsa Youth event is planned for Tuesday 10 March with Symmetry Financial and will focus on navigating the often-difficult process of buying a home. A hybrid event, it will take place in the Oireachtas AV room in Leinster House at 4:30 p.m. Attendees must register, and can do so here.  

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