Vol. 500 No. 2
44 Mr. Naughten asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will ensure that youth projects currently funded by area partnership companies will be continued after funding is exhausted at the end of 1999; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3746/99]
Youth projects funded by the area based partnerships form only a small part of my Department's overall support for youth services.
As the Deputy is aware the partnerships are currently funded as part of the EU aided Operational Programme for Local Urban and Rural Development 1994-99 co-ordinated by the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation. The continued operation of the partnerships after the current round of EU Structural Fund negotiations and their scope and function will be influenced by emerging developments regarding both the negotiations for the new round of EU funding and a greater integration between the local government and the local development systems.
I assure the House of my commitment to the promotion of an integrated area-based approach to addressing educational disadvantage and to the enhancement of links between education providers and community, youth, welfare, employer and training interests. My Department will continue to work closely with local development interests in the future to achieve the objective of integrated area planning and a strengthening of home, school and community links. The education co-ordinators and the youth services have a critical role to play in this respect.
I thank the Minister of State for his reply. Many of these youth projects deal with children at risk who have behavioural problems or who come from broken homes. Will the Minister of State ensure that funding will be provided after 1999 for these projects? I am aware this is not currently within the remit of his Department but we are talking about young people who are under his remit. Will the Minister ensure the funding is continued for these projects after the end of the year?
The position is that neither I nor anybody else knows the shape the area based partnerships will take after 31 December next when the funding runs out. The area based partnerships spend a certain amount – approximately £500,000 per annum – on youth services, and I accept that funding goes to particularly disadvantaged youth. It is the Government's objective that the area based partnerships continue to operate in their current form. I am particularly concerned, as is the Minister, that the funding for disadvantaged youth be continued by the area based partnerships after 31 December of this year. In the unlikely event that it does not, the Deputy and the House can rest assured I will ensure that is reflected in the amount of funding we give to the youth services overall.
On the point raised by the Deputy, I would like to see these specific projects continue to be funded, even if we have to provide the resources ourselves. As Deputy Naughten is aware, however, the funding for youth services from the area based partnerships forms part of an integrated area based approach in each case. I do not know whether it will be possible to fund those projects on a stand alone basis as a type of adjunct to what we are currently funding to youth services but we are keeping a close eye on this matter and the Deputy can be assured I will leave no stone unturned to ensure these people, who are from particularly disadvantaged areas, will not be disadvantaged if the area partnerships do not continue to operate as they currently do after the end of the year.
Will the Minister of State ensure that these type of projects currently being funded will continue after 1999? It is difficult to get funding in the Department of Education and Science, unlike in the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation where more than £20 million was made available to organisations under the drugs task force; some of them do not know what to do with the money. This is the type of project that needs to be continued and developed rather than the top down approach being taken in the Minister's sister Department.
The people who have responsibility for my sister Department can speak for themselves. I will answer for my Department. I reject the suggestion implicit in the Deputy's question that funding is difficult to find. The Deputy will be aware that we got a substantial increase in provision for youth services this year which will enable me to take a number of initiatives one of which will have particular relevance to disadvantaged youth and which I will announce shortly. If the area based partnership funding to the youth service is discontinued after 31 December next, I will ensure that the people cur rently benefiting from that funding do not suffer any disadvantage as a result.
The Minister is taking an extremely narrow view of youth services from the partnership companies. Approximately £10.5 million worth of services for young people is funded for educational purposes through the Minister's Department. Is the Minister of State saying he is willing to allow the partnership companies be dismantled and that he will at some future date reconstitute area based approaches? The Minister is not giving a clear commitment that he will maintain the partnerships in the educational work they are doing. I want a clear reply from the Minister of State. Will he accept it would be ludicrous to dismantle community based schemes that have great commitment from parents, co-ordinators, students, principals and teachers and substitute it at some time in the future when he is framing the 2001 Estimates? Will the Minister not agree that we are already seeing the education co-ordinators seconded by his own Department giving up their posts because of the uncertainty and the lack of decision from his Department? I am aware of several people who have surrendered their positions. Will he agree we are already seeing the process of dismantling and he must arrest that now with a clear statement of policy in this area?
I am not aware that the education co-ordinators are voluntarily giving up their jobs to go back into the unemployed section of the population.
They are not unemployed. They are seconded.
Deputy Bruton will be aware that due to the success of the economic policies being pursued by this Government, many people in society are moving on from their current jobs to even better jobs. That is probably what is happening here.
That is not what is happening here. I can give the Minister of State examples.
The Deputy can give me examples in his own time.
We should have less bull from the Minister. He should answer the question.
Very unparliamentary language.
Allow the Minister to answer.
We will not waste the short time allocated for Question Time in the House.
Spoof.
The Deputy, and his brother, would know more about that than me.
I am not my brother's keeper.
They are masters of the art. I will repeat again that Deputy Bruton's figures are wrong. On the section specifically dealing with youth, which Deputy Naughten's question deals with, approximately £500,000 per year is going into that from the area based partnerships.
The Minister is taking a very narrow view of youth. Youth are disadvantaged young people in or out of school.
There is a further question on the education co-ordinators which I am sure the Minister will deal with if the Deputy ceases the interruptions which are only wasting time. In relation to my responsibility, I will ensure that if the area based partnerships do not continue to operate in their current format, any consequent loss to young people from disadvantaged areas currently benefiting will be made up. As to whether I will allow the area based partnerships continue or be dismantled, I thank the Deputy for the vote of confidence in my power and influence. The future operation of the area based partnership depends on the outcome of the EU Structural Fund negotiations. The Deputy will be aware that the task force established by the Minister for the Environment and Local Government has recommended that the area based partnerships not only continue but be strengthened.
Then do it.
The Government is committed to that. I will not allow the young people who benefit from the area based partnerships to be disadvantaged if the situation changes. We are doing our utmost in the EU negotiations to ensure that we get sufficient funding to continue the area based partnerships in their present form.
The Minister of State indicated that the Minister would reply on the wider context of the educational role of the partnership.
