Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 27 Feb 2003

Vol. 562 No. 3

Written Answers - Youth Work.

David Stanton

Ceist:

43 Mr. Stanton asked the Minister for Education and Science the further progress which has been made in the implementation of the Youth Work Act 2001; the extra resources which have been made available or that he intends to make available to enable the full and proper implementation of the Act; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5892/03]

Minister for Education and Science (Mr. N. Dempsey)

The Youth Work Act 2001 was enacted on 1 December 2001 and provides a statutory basis for the development of youth work. The Act followed on a widespread consultation process and provides a legal framework for the provision of youth work programmes and services to be organised by the Minister for Education and Science, the vocational education committees and by national-regional youth work organisations.

It was never the intention that the Act would be implemented fully at once – on the contrary. Section 1 of the Act provides for sections to be commenced at different stages. To date, sections 2 to 18, inclusive, and section 24 have been commenced. Sections 17 and 18 provided for the establishment of a new National Youth Work Advisory Committee, NYWAC. This is a key provision of the Act and this committee was appointed in April 2002. This committee is providing advice to me on a regular basis in regard to the implementation of other sections of the Act.

A subcommittee of the NYWAC has been established to make recommendations on the requirements necessary for the implementation of the various sections of the Act. This subcommittee comprises representatives of both statutory and voluntary sectors as well as my Department. Two reports were recently furnished to the Minister with responsibility for youth affairs and have been approved in principle by her. These reports were prepared by this subcommittee and approved by the NYWAC. The reports relate to the first two areas of action necessary to put in place the arrangements viz. the designation of local youth work organisations and the establishment of local voluntary youth councils. It is intended to have these reports circulated to the appropriate interest groups. The subcommittee's work is of a continuing nature and work on the criteria for the approval of national youth work organisations is nearing completion. This subcommittee will continue to report to the NYWAC on this and other aspects of the implementation process of the Act.

It will be necessary to have structures put in place at local level to enable,inter alia, youth work committees to be established which will be responsible for the preparation of three year development plans for approval by the vocational education committees and, in turn, by my Department.

In addition, my Department is engaged in ongoing discussions with the IVEA-CEOs' association and the National Youth Council of Ireland in relation to the further administrative and financial arrangements necessary to enable implementation of the Act at local level. It will then be necessary for my Department to discuss the question of resources with the Department of Finance.