I said last night that I felt the whole community should be involved in a youth development policy. In the policy being evolved by the Parliamentary Secretary, Deputy Bruton, we must ensure that the cold hand of bureaucracy does not fall on the voluntary bodies who have done tremendous work for our youth. Whatever policy is put forward must be an aid and a guide to these voluntary organisations. We do not want an authoritarian document laying down rules and regulations. This would cause more problems than it would solve. Knowing the Parliamentary Secretary I have no doubt that this will not happen but, not knowing what is in the document it is important that that should be said in the House. People are asking why the document has not been issued to date. Last night the Minister clearly indicated that it is almost completed. I hope that it will issue some time in the near future.
A youth development policy encompasses quite a number of Departments apart from the Department of Education. The Department of Labour and AnCO are involved in apprenticeship training. The Department of Local Government are involved in the community. Where young people are in trouble with the law, the Department of Justice are involved. The Department of Health are involved in remedial work. When we are talking about a plan it is important that the whole aspect of youth activity from A to Z is taken into account.
Too many people think that youth involvement is connected with sports only. This is important but it is only a facet of the problem. Greater emphasis should be placed on physical education for young people. In many schools it is haphazard. If a teacher is interested in athletics and sport, that school will have a greater participation in physical education than another school where there is no teacher who is interested in those activities. There should be a co-ordinated effort in all the schools at the primary level. This is the proper place to develop an attitude towards physical education. Later, young people have adopted certain attitudes and they have lost the initiative to participate in physical education or sporting activities. The Minister should examine that thoroughly because it is easy to mould the minds and attitudes of young children.
The National Youth Council are doing excellent work in co-ordinating activities. Great credit is due to them. They could play a significant role in moulding public opinion. We are very vulnerable to advertisements. Clothing is advertised to appeal to the herd instinct of young people rather than to the individual mind. We are living in a consumer society. Young people have good earning potential and they are the people who spend. In many ways advertisers use young people unscrupulously. People who are concerned about our youth should launch a campaign against this nauseating exploitation of young people.
We should have local authority youth officers in the country such as we have in the Dublin area. They could play their part as youth leaders and they could train our young people. If this type of thing is too centralised it becomes too impersonalised. When people are involved in an area, they become part of that area. With regard to training officers, they train the people in their area, which has the effect of providing the type of leadership needed. One of today's problems is that we have not got sufficient youth leaders within our voluntary organisations. One way of achieving this would be through local authority development and it is to be hoped that such bodies might be involved in whatever plan the Parliamentary Secretary has in mind.
Opposition speakers spoke about the breakdown of youth services and there was some hysteria shown in that respect. I do not believe there has been any breakdown. Indeed, the figures prove that greater numbers are entering youth organisations, which is something we should encourage and in respect of which larger sums of money have been allocated by the Government since they assumed office. There was grave neglect of any youth policy by the last Government, which is one of the reasons it has taken a fair amount of time to produce the requisite document to coordinate the various aspects involved. Had we had an ongoing policy over the years, this would not have been the case. Rather we had stop, go efforts to which very little thought was given. Any policy that will withstand the test of time requires indepth study and consideration. When one considers all the Departments involved, it is, indeed, necessary that that policy withstand the test of time. I think the Minister indicated it would be a policy which would be carried through to the end of the century. The Minister said so with confidence which I have no doubt was justified.
There are grave problems being experienced in our society today, amongst which are those of vandalism, bad school attendance, violence and so on. One of the reasons is the type of consumer society in which we live where not sufficient emphasis is placed on civic education. Sufficient attention is not paid to the development of young people's minds. There are good libraries in Dublin; there are also the Museum, Art galleries and so on but they are under-utilised. People do not know their cities or their historical backgrounds. Recently I was in a school not a mile from here. I asked the pupils there where Leinster House was situated and, after some minutes—out of approximately 20 pupils—one boy told me. That is the kind of knowledge that is lacking, all of which stems from lack of education. Of course, education begins in the home. Then we move into school where there should be provided this type of civil education, development of the mind and of one's ability to question. If we can get people to ask questions, then there will not be this herd instinct that tends to obtain at present, from which emerge pop groups and the mass hysteria developed by the media solely for profit and not for young people's enjoyment.
Those are some of the problems that will have to be tackled in the parliamentary report when it is published, with suggestions being made as to how we can build a better society because the foundations of any society are its young people. We must inspire them with a degree of idealism. If youth has not idealism, a nation will suffer and in the youth of today that type of idealism appears to be lacking. There is a certain degree of nationalism around which is evil. An idealist is one who looks into the future and who builds a nation. We are a young country facing a tremendous challenge as a result of entering the industrial scene with the advent of oil, gas and mineral deposits. We must ask ourselves are our young people equipped to meet that challenge. If not, hopefully we still have time to achieve that aim. Again, education will play a vital role in gearing them to accept the challenge.
But whatever the future brings, up to now the people who have participated in the development of youth are deserving of the highest praise for their dedication and concern. I would urge the Government to give every help and encouragement to such people so that we may look forward to an Ireland that rears to manhood people who are concerned with, say, the elderly, the feeble, the needy; that we develop in our people that deep social conscience. This can be done. The voluntary bodies consist of people who have a deep sense of social commitment otherwise such people would not be rendering service to them. That is why I am completely in favour of voluntary bodies because they instil in people the same sense of dedication, honour and service which are important.
I look forward to this document. This motion was badly worded and, in that sense, unnecessary. We are all concerned with youth. I am satisfied that when this policy is announced the voluntary bodies will get its objectives working and will receive the requisite assistance from the various Departments. If we can achieve that, we can, indeed, look forward to a bright future for our country.
