I welcome the Youth Work Bill, 2000. It is an important Bill given the amount of voluntary work, structures and organisations that exist under the remit of the VEC. They play an important role in the development of local communities and youth services. Section 17 deals with the national youth work advisory committee. That committee will advise the Minister on such matters as the provision and co-ordination of youth work programmes, youth work policies, co-ordination of youth work and formal education, co-ordination of youth work and services for young people and so on. The establishment of that committee is important as is the appointment of an assessor of youth work. Under the provisions of section 16, the Minister is empowered to appoint the assessor. I would like this to be part and parcel of what will actually happen. Empowering the Minister is one thing but I would like the Minister to take that function on board and ensure the assessor of youth work is put in place. One of the functions of that person will be to advise, monitor work programmes and, perhaps, evaluate them. Through that work he may be able to carry out audits in various counties and link the activities of one county to another. Where there is a deficit in one county in terms of activity or financial investment that would be brought to the attention of the Minister and the national youth advisory committee. The necessary steps could then be taken to ensure an equity of spend throughout all counties, thus ensuring that no county is left behind because of inaction or lack of funding.
In view of the expansion of the role of the youth work advisory committee and the various activities which will now have to be undertaken by the VEC there will be a need for a huge investment in youth services. A three-year plan instead of a one-year plan is essential. Currently, throughout the different counties, including Carlow and Kilkenny, a spend is put in place which is provided from year to year. The officers in the field, the youth clubs and organisations in the various counties realise the importance of being able to plan into the future. They realise that a three-year term is needed to focus on the investment required for those three years. There is a need for those in the Department to understand that three-year plan and to fund it. All of this will lead to extra bureaucracy and I hope in the course of implementing the Bill and investing in our young people that the money will not be taken up in new bureaucratic structures through the involvement of more personnel. The money should be used by the current structures and more money should be provided for the delivery of youth services in each county. The existing programmes which are doing well but are starved of cash should be enhanced.
While the various sections of the Bill are to be commended, the cost effectiveness of the new structures must be monitored. We must ensure the money goes beyond that structure and into the field of activity which is looked after largely by volunteers. The Bill will encourage greater openness and transparency and will bring everybody on board in terms of the VEC. It has the potential to bring greater equity in funding to the various counties.
There are benefits in revising the structures at county level. The Bill refers to the VEC and the structures required. Where a satisfactory structure for the delivery of the services is already in place and functioning properly and supported locally there would be a flexibility to keep it in place and not to create some other structure which is just another layer of bureaucracy. We should get straight down to the meat of the busi ness and acknowledge the work that has already been done.
Such a structure exists in Carlow town, where there is a limited company supported by the various groups and organisations and which is pushing forward in the whole area of youth development. I would like to see that maintained and those structures adopted under the Bill.
The funding of the Bill is mentioned in different sections. I referred last night during the budget debate to the fact that a central youth facility is needed to draw together all the activities and spending within County Carlow. The organisations in the county have put forward a proposal for such a central youth facility, which would deliver a youth information service and include a youth café, and an outreach service for unattached young people. Programmes which have been established, with workers in place, could be housed in that building. It would also include a counselling service for young people, a drug abuse prevention service, a special area based project worker, other services to be identified after consultation with the other interested parties, networking facilities and youth arts.
That is the programme that they have set for themselves. That they need £1.5 million in capital to refurbish that building means they are currently at crisis point. As this Bill encourages youth organisations to go down that road, a mechanism should be put in place whereby bodies like the Carlow youth services, which want to access a £1.5 million refurbishment spend, would be in a position to avail of the 63% increase in the new capital funding that is available under the budget.
If that could happen, they could, in partnership with the local agencies which have already been established and the county council, which owns the building, achieve a building and a service centre that would be at the cutting edge of youth development in that county and would be a centre of excellence for what could happen, not only in Carlow town but throughout the county. It is essential for a mechanism to be put in place to enable such a capital spend to be accessed, where the energy and the plan is available locally.
Carlow is unique in that it does not have a youth information service. I have already spoken about the equity in the services that are delivered. Most other counties have such a service. It is referred to in various sections in the Bill. Carlow has applied for such a service but it has not been delivered.
There is a need for disadvantaged project youth workers in Carlow town. I have looked at the system in other counties, where the programmes in place in highly populated areas refer to "disadvantaged areas". Areas that require youth workers, but which are not disadvantaged according to the criteria of the scheme set down by the Department, do not qualify and cannot readily access the funds available for youth workers for disadvantaged areas. As a result, there is one youth worker in Carlow town who is serving a huge population, although there is a requirement for two more.
I ask the Department to look at the applications from places such as Carlow town and to bring them up to speed with what is happening nationally and being achieved elsewhere, so that there will be a level playing field for youth development. There is a need for the Department to commit itself, in terms of the new developments in the Bill, to approving a youth worker for disadvantaged sections of Carlow every year for three years.
We need to focus on what is being achieved in rural Ireland for young people. The Ossory youth services in my county of Kilkenny are well structured. However, they are dealing with a huge and ever increasing population and huge demands are placed on the time of the voluntary workers involved. Nine staff are involved in administration there. They receive a grant of £94,000 which should be increased, although it is only one of many grants that can be accessed. There is a £20,000 shortfall at the end of the year.
I am giving that example so that the Minister can look at what currently needs to be funded. I accept what is in the Bill and the requirements under it. We need to fast track many of the funding applications received by the Department from many of these counties.
On the issue of rural youth workers, in my county of Kilkenny in recent days we received further funding of £30,000 for Callan and Castlecomer. There is one youth worker involved in those two population centres, which are at opposite ends of the county. Money is there for a youth worker but there is no money for the back-up services and training required to ensure that worker is able to travel to the various centres, put in place programmes, motivate the volunteers and get the job done for young people there. The salary is there but the other funding is not. We must address this.
There are 12 clubs in County Kilkenny but 20 are needed. If these clubs were properly funded through the youth services and all their programmes had some way of being audited and being found to be good quality, much more would happen for young people. However, what happens is that these young people meet in fairly spread out rural areas around my county – and I know the same is true of many other counties – and have to immediately get involved in fund raising.
While that is a way of generating activity, bonding people together at local level and achieving a certain amount of youth activity, it does not address the reason for having youth services and why those people volunteer, which is to make far more young people responsible within their communities. They are educated through the youth services about civics and the importance of their community. It is too easy for young people to become involved in drink, drugs and many other areas of activity which are not recommended and are causing serious social problems on the margins of this country. This youth activity breaks that cycle and is the way forward. That is why I welcome this Bill and am highlighting the deficiencies in the current structure.
There is a need to train young people in various skills and to improve the skills of the volunteers. The training fund Bill and the education council Bill referred to the need for lifelong training and education. There is a need for the people who volunteer for these services to be skilled up, not just in youth activities but in the broad spectrum of education, so that we can give our young people a meaningful role in mainstream activities in their schools and local communities. There is under staffing in this area, but qualified people are working in the field. They must be given the finance and the wherewithal in their structures to be able to move from where they are and acquire new skills through re-education and continuing education. They can then pass on these skills to those involved on a voluntary basis who will pass them on to the young people.
A youth worker in Kilkenny city covers an area where in one housing estate there is 68% unemployment. In another area a similar proportion of young people are dropping out of school at an early age. This youth worker should be given the proper resources to deal with such problems. There is no building or community centre within reach of a group of 500 houses where young people can come together and participate in youth activities. That must be addressed, as must the deficit in the skills area and the personnel on the ground.
A youth worker can do many things to break cycles and can help young people who are not geared towards mainstream education but who want to work in some way, be it through the arts or through different niches within their communities where they can develop their characters, personalities and skills. At present they are unable to do this because they are being allowed to stray without anybody to look after them. This is where youth workers are needed. The youth worker in Kilkenny city, to whom I have referred, could do with the help of at least two others working together with the appropriate resources in terms of administration and so on to meet the daily challenges that arise in local communities.
Much work needs to be done, including with the volunteers and involving the families. There is a need to involve as many parents as possible in the whole area of youth activity. There is also a need to open our eyes to rural areas that are suffering neglect. The Bill will go some way to establishing the necessary structures. I hope the assessor of youth work will be in a position to examine the plans from the VEC and ensure they are implemented and funded on a priority basis to the extent that they will achieve significant work on the ground and remove some of the serious difficulties we experience with young people.
I commend the Bill. The functioning structures on the ground – I have mentioned some in Counties Carlow and Kilkenny – should be funded to a far greater extent. I hope the huge allocations of funding outlined in the budget will be diverted to areas where there is a plan in place and where there is the most need. Following the fulfilment and extension of the existing plans, I hope the funding will be provided for the buildings required – I mentioned the one in Carlow – perhaps in partnership with the local authorities through the new structure with the VEC.
When the Bill is finally enacted I hope its provisions will be costed. Many Bills passed by the House, which are well worth supporting – the Government and Departments are doing excellent work in this regard – need to be costed. We need to put in place the personnel to ensure the policies adopted in the legislation are enforced.
