I raise the matter of a local resource centre in Kilbarrack in my constituency which will lose its core staff with effect from tomorrow and does not have access to other resources. Kilbarrack on the north side of Dublin has suffered serious unemployment and other social ills for a long time. The parish concerned is made up of approximately 1,200 houses and 100 flats and the unemployment rate is approximately 40 to 45 per cent. Recently that area has been included in the Northside Partnership area which extends around it. The local community has made a major effort during the past ten to 12 years to bring about local socio-economic development.
St. Benedict's steering group established a little over two years ago embarked on a feasibility study and was funded to the tune of £10,000 initially for an area action plan and later received £50,000 to implement it. That group has been busy implementing that study. The resource centre was launched approximately 15 to 16 months ago and the group has been busy implementing its action plan which has been successful and impressive. It has a full-time community worker and a number of core staff in charge of after-school projects, women's projects and other activities. A wide range of activities are organised in the centre including a crèche, a community information service and various small enterprise developments. A jobs club is projected and other major groups in the area share that building and use the administrative services provided in it.
Why is there a threat to pull the plug on that centre when great efforts and expense, almost £80,000, were incurred during the past few years to establish, fund and staff it? I accept that the Minister for Social Welfare and his Minister of State have been sympathetic to the representations made on behalf of the centre and they will meet the management group next Monday, but tomorrow evening the basic funding for the administration of the centre will cease.
It appears that the Taoiseach and his Minister of State have a responsibility for this matter because the project was originally funded through the ADM company. The Minister of State is a former member of the Committee of Public Accounts of which I am a member. This morning it discussed local groups funded under the Department of Social Welfare or other Departments. If the achievement of a group is measurable and impressive, as in the case of this group, why can we not continue to fund it to ensure that the group's objectives will be ultimately successful?
I ask the Minister for Social Welfare and the Minister of State at the Taoiseach's office to sort out the problem and to ensure that adequate funding will continue to be made available through the Department of Social Welfare and the ADM company to ensure that the project is successful.
This area is written about extensively in literature. Roddy Doyle and one or two other famous local writers have written about it. It is sad and while State support has been provided for a major initiative to address some of the problems identified and published in Roddy Doyle's literary output, the horrendous level of local unemployment and its associated problems, at the end of the day we are not addressing them effectively. I ask the Minister to take action on this matter.
