I am delighted to propose the Youth Work Bill, 1997, to the Seanad. Since my appointment as Minister of State with responsibility for Youth Affairs I have accorded priority to the policy aspect of my youth work responsibilities. The Seanad has the opportunity today to debate this ground breaking legislation aimed at giving a sound framework to the provision, co-ordination, monitoring, evaluation and development of youth work programmes and services.
The Bill is the result of many years of effort entailing detailed research, consultation and discussion among everybody interested in youth work. The Bill is of considerable historical significance in the Irish youth work context. Some historical events are chance happenings. However, many do not just happen but must be deliberately planned. This holds true for this Bill because it arose directly out of the December 1994 policy agreement, A Government of Renewal, made between the three parties that form the Government. That policy document included a particular commitment to prepare a Bill to provide a specific, detailed legislative framework for youth work. This undertaking was repeated in the chapter on youth work in the 1995 White Paper on Education.
These Government statements on legislation for youth work were inspired in large measure by the benchmark Irish youth work document, the report of the National Youth Policy Committee, chaired by Mr. Justice Costello, which was issued in September 1984. Although the Government then in power included in its December 1985 document, In Partnership With Youth, a commitment that legislation would be introduced for youth work, there was, regrettably, little progress between December 1985 and December 1994 on the issue of specific legislation for youth work, with the notable exception of the rejected Private Member's Bill introduced by Deputy Deenihan in 1990 while my party was in Opposition.
Nonetheless, although the period between December 1985 and December 1994 saw little or no advance on the issue of specific legislation for youth work, useful work was done in related areas. For example, an excellent report was presented in November 1993 by the consultative group on the development of youth work to my predecessor as Minister of State, Deputy Aylward. That report made a number of recommendations on the development of youth work, particularly with regard to definitions, underlying principles, characteristics of youth work, evaluation and youth work structures. This Bill draws to a significant degree on the consultative group's report.
Admittedly, although I set to work soon after my appointment as Minister of State, the job of producing the Youth Work Bill, 1997, took longer than expected, as all of us involved soon realised the implications of the rather complicated and lengthy procedure that is a normal feature of the legislative process. Quite simply, these things take time.
One reason for the delay was the evident need for me to outline my vision for the future of youth work, which I did in a chapter of the April 1995 White Paper on Education, and following that publication there was a clear case for further research, consultation and discussion. Accordingly, I wrote in June 1995 to all the relevant bodies in order to give them the opportunity to present written observations on the youth work chapter of the White Paper. In addition, my officials and I met representatives of several of the interest groups that made submissions. In particular, we had especially valuable discussions with the National Youth Council of Ireland. Other important research was also undertaken, such as the obtaining of information on the legal and administrative framework for the provision of youth work services in Northern Ireland and England.
Following full consideration of the submissions, the meetings and the research to which I have referred, and having undertaken detailed consultation with other Departments, the Government approved, on 2 July 1996, the general scheme of the legislation that we produced. The parliamentary draftsman provided us with the draft Bill in December, 1996. After some concluding liaison since the start of the current year between my Department and certain other key Departments, the Government approved the final text of the Youth Work Bill on 25 February 1997. The way was then clear to publish the Bill on 5 March.
The Youth Work Bill has a number of important features. First, it gives a clear legal definition to youth work. For the first time, this Bill provides a clear mission for youth work by defining it in section 2 as being a:
programme of activity that is designed for the purpose of providing developmental and educational training so as to assist the personal and social development of young persons which
(a) requires the voluntary participation of young persons, and
(b) is complementary to academic or vocational training.
Furthermore, the Youth Work Bill sets out the responsibilities of the Minister for Education and of the education boards regarding youth work. In the first instance, the Bill formalises the Government's commitment to youth work because by setting out the Department's policy, co-ordination, budget, research, monitoring, assessment and consultative functions, it will represent a clear and unequivocal Government commitment to the performance of youth work functions now performed on an informal and ad hoc basis. Second, the Youth Work Bill through stipulating that each education board will, in so far as it is practicable and within the financial resources available to it, ensure the provision of youth work programmes and services for its region, provides that the benefits resulting from subsidiarity are gained in the delivery of youth work services. We will thus have a structure that is more responsive to the needs of the regions and closer to community interests.
The resource allocation function exercised centrally by the Department at present in regard to local and regional youth work programmes and services will, therefore, be devolved from the Department of Education to the education boards. As a result, not alone will decision making on regional matters take place at the more appropriate regional level, but also the Department will be freed up sufficiently to enable it to concentrate more closely on vital issues such as national policy formulation, overall planning and development, assessment of performance, financial management, quality assurance and the national distribution of funding. This will be in full accordance with precedents of devolution in other European countries, most notably Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Sweden, Spain and Portugal, many of which had previously, like ourselves, a tradition of highly centralised control of all aspects of the education system.
I must stress, nevertheless, that the regionalisation of decision making to education boards will not result in the establishment of a rigid State youth service and will not substitute public sector activity for voluntary sector activity in the youth work sphere. On the contrary, the Bill sets out detailed procedures for ensuring that youth work services will normally be secured by education boards through grant aiding voluntary youth work organisations. Section 4(7), (8) and (9) details a procedure that an education board must follow which will ensure that only in the most exceptional circumstances may it consider providing a youth work service itself.
The Bill also formally provides that the Department will prescribe national voluntary youth work organisations and provides that the education boards will designate or name local voluntary youth work organisations. This provision for prescribing national voluntary youth work organisations means, in effect, that we will have a proper system of recognising national voluntary youth work organisations.
In this context I would like to inform the Seanad that my officials have recently initiated a process of consultation with the National Youth Council of Ireland in relation to the development of criteria for use in prescribing national voluntary youth work organisations. This most recent initiative will assist in the process of establishing a proper mechanism for the legal recognition of national voluntary youth work organisations. Similarly, the provision under section 23 for the designation by education boards of local voluntary youth work organisations will help to set up a satisfactory system for the recognition of such organisations.
The Bill also underpins the primacy of the volunteer in youth work. The most significant way in which the Bill will do this is through the establishment of voluntary youth councils and of volunteer youth leaders throughout the country. These councils will have several crucial functions, including the power to nominate 50 per cent of the members of each education board's youth work committee, the duty of advising the relevant education board in relation to its youth work planning and the role of providing a forum for local voluntary youth work organisations. In this way, the Bill should help to ensure that volunteerism will continue to flourish in the youth service in this country. This is a major concern for me because I passionately believe that volunteerism is the key to real success in the provision of youth work services.
I want also to say in relation to the voluntary youth councils that, among the innovative provisions of the Bill, are that at least one-fifth of the membership of each council will be set aside for volunteer youth leaders under the age of 25, and that there will be special provision for volunteer youth leaders working with the travelling community. Hence, the councils will encourage youth participation and will assist in the empowerment of the traveller youth work sector.
In addition, the Bill does not neglect the all important issue of accountability in the expenditure of public resources. Several of its provisions, especially those regarding monitoring and assessment, afford a means for demonstrating the benefits and value for money of youth work and of ensuring that public funds expended on youth work services are spent efficiently and effectively. I am confident, therefore, that the Bill should help to attract additional resources for youth work. In fact, the many provisions of the Bill stressing integration, co-ordination, assessment and targeting will assist us in meeting the value for money requirement which must attach to all public expenditure as well as enhancing the measurement of the benefits of youth work.
The application of terms and conditions to the allocation of grants is provided for in section 19 in the case of ministerial grants and in section 4 in the case of education board grants. Sections 3 and 9 provide for a national system of monitoring and assessment of youth work services. Specific provision is made in section 3(4) for value for money considerations to be taken into proper account, in that it stipulates that ministerial monitoring and assessment shall have regard to an evaluation of the expenditure incurred in the provision of youth work programmes and services. Section 4(1)(c) makes a similar stipulation in the case of monitoring and assessment done by the education boards. Another way in which the Bill emphasises value for money considerations is the special importance attached in it to co-ordination between youth work policies and other policies affecting young people, and to the youth work needs of disadvantaged young people aged ten to 21 years.
Furthermore, the national youth work advisory committee proposed under sections 10 and 11 of the Bill is of central importance in regard to ensuring value for money. The advisory committee will include nominees of the national body representing the views of voluntary youth work organisations and other Departments. This model will permit the availability of the best possible advice regarding the optimum integration and co-ordination between youth work services and other services for young people, thus helping to ensure value for money through proper targeting of resources, integration of efforts and networking between agencies. In a similar fashion, the proposed youth work committees of the education boards, by including representatives of the voluntary youth councils and of important statutory agencies such as the health boards, FÁS and the Garda juvenile liaison service, will also contribute to the value for money requirement.
Following on from the theme of value for money, many of the features of the Bill that are important in that respect also have the effect of providing for consultation and partnership in decision making. At national level, for example, the fact that the National Youth Work Advisory Committee will include substantial representation of the national body recognised as representing the views of the voluntary youth work organisations will ensure partnership and will also be a crucial guarantee of the voluntary nature of the Irish youth work service. Similarly, sections 17 and 18 provide for a youth work committee to be established by each education board, which, through a 50:50 membership ratio between the statutory sector and the voluntary sector, will ensure real partnership in decision making.
What is most significant about the Bill is that it should give everyone involved in youth work the opportunity of demonstrating the benefits of youth work, especially in terms of assisting the disadvantaged and marginalised. I am convinced that youth work can help to prevent social ills such as juvenile delinquency and that such prevention is vastly more cost effective than the most sophisticated programmes of rehabilitation can ever be. As I said when I spoke on Committee Stage in the Dáil, an article I read in a recent issue of The Economist made an impression on me because it stated that in England it costs more to keep a child in a young offenders' institution than it would to send him to Eton.
Juvenile delinquency has been the cause of much tragedy in both Dublin City and Cork City in the recent past. Easter weekend this year was especially tragic for the family and friends of all those killed in the so-called "joyriding" incidents.
As I also mentioned in the Dáil, an event that made a marked impact on me was the 71 year old mother of seven from Raheny, Dublin, who died after being struck by a car driven at high speed by a 15 year old. That tragic event was followed by a deeply moving statement by one of those directly affected. In a dignified response to the awful death of his dear mother, Mr. Joe McGrath made an impressive plea for improved recreational, developmental and sporting programmes and facilities for young people, particularly in disadvantaged urban areas. While we need an increased emphasis on the standards of law and order if we are to maintain the integrity of our society, we must also address the root causes of problems such as joyriding. Youth work can help our young people, including those at risk of getting involved in anti-social activities, to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to overcome the problems caused by unemployment, alienation, demoralisation, crime and drug abuse.
In this connection also, the Bill is significant because it stipulates that in the development of youth work programmes and services particular regard will be had for the youth work requirements of young people aged between ten and 21 years who are socially or economically disadvantaged. I am a firm believer in the principles of social solidarity because, as the great Martin Luther King once said: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." The Bill helps, moreover, to address the justified concern of many people that expenditure on the formal education system and the non-formal or youth work system is incurred by means of administrative measures which are known only to a handful of officials and specialists but which are not readily available to the public. Together with the Education Bill, this Bill will tackle this issue.
I will now deal with some points of criticism that have been made in certain quarters. First, it has been said that the Bill does not guarantee additional money for youth work. Although the Bill is essentially aimed at establishing a legislative basis for youth work services that are, to a great extent, already in existence, the Government intends to implement the further development of youth work services on a phased basis within the financial resources available. While the legislation will not of itself commit the Government to the provision of additional youth work services, it will provide a statutory framework in which the phased development of youth work services may be undertaken. Moreover, since the Bill ensures accountability in the expenditure of public resources, provides the opportunity of demonstrating the benefits and the value for money of youth work and ensures that public funds expended on youth work services are spent efficiently and effectively, I am sure it will help to attract additional resources for youth work.
Some have also wondered, in the light of the delegation of youth work functions from the Department of Education to education boards following implementation of this legislation, if national youth organisations will continue to receive direct grants from the Department of Education. The position is that, while responsibility for the funding of local and regional youth work programmes and services will in general be devolved from the Department to the education boards, sections 8 and 19 of the Youth Work Bill empower the Department to allocate direct grants to voluntary youth work organisations in respect of the provision of youth work programmes or services in two or more education regions.
Section 8 also permits the Department to secure the provision of supplementary regional youth work programmes and services by allocating direct grants to voluntary youth work organisations. Accordingly, the direct funding of youth organisations by the Department will continue in respect of national and inter-regional youth work programmes and services. However, youth work programmes and services particular to a specific education region will normally be secured by education boards and not by the Department.
In addition, some have questioned our definition of youth work. In this context, I point out that the general scheme or Heads of the Bill, as approved by the Government on 2 July 1996 and as subsequently submitted to the parliamentary draftsman, included the following definition of youth work:
"Youth work" means a planned systematic educational process which assists and enhances the personal and social development of young people, entails the participation of young people on a voluntary basis, is complementary to the formal education and training system and is implemented primarily by voluntary groups and organisations.
The definition of youth work in the general scheme of the Bill was based on the definition produced by the consultative group on the development of youth work which reported to the former Minister of State for Youth Affairs, Deputy Aylward, in November 1993. One of the tasks set for the consultative group was to devise a more precise definition of youth work. The definition in paragraph 3.1 of the consultative group report forms, therefore, the basis of the general scheme definition.
On the basis of the general scheme definition and in consultation with the Department of Education, the parliamentary draftsman produced the definition, phrased in appropriate legal language, that appears in the Bill. The main change of substance between the general scheme definition and the definition in the Bill is that the phrase "and is implemented primarily by voluntary groups and organisations" was dropped because this is not an absolutely defining characteristic of youth work. That is to say, it is possible, even in the context of the situation envisaged under the Youth Work Bill, for non-voluntary organisations to provide youth work programmes and services in certain — admittedly exceptional — circumstances. Since the phrase in question was obviously not a defining characteristic, it was decided that it should be omitted from the definition.
In response to some questions that have been raised regarding the phraseology used in the Bill regarding gender equity, I wish to point out that much thought and effort was put into that phraseology both by staff within the Department of Education and within the office of the parliamentary draftsman. Having particular regard to the need not to interfere with the single sex programmes and organisations that are necessary features of some aspects of youth work, we consider that the provisions made regarding gender equity in sections 3(2), 4(3), 6(7), 7(1), 10(2) and 14(3) are satisfactory. The main focus of our effort in this sphere was to ensure overall gender equity but in such a way as to safeguard the aforementioned single sex programmes and organisations.
Accordingly, rather than requiring equality of access of all youth work programmes and services and requiring an equal balance of participation in all youth work programmes and services, the aforementioned provisions regarding gender equity simply state that regard shall be had... to the treatment of males and females in relation to access to youth work and the number of males and females participating in youth work.
Some questions have, moreover, been raised regarding the fact that, under the terms of the Youth Work Bill, voluntary youth councils will be entirely composed of volunteer youth leaders. Section 15(2) of the Bill clearly and unambiguously states that membership of voluntary youth councils is limited to volunteer youth leaders. Our reason for limiting membership of voluntary youth councils to volunteer youth leaders is derived from a number of key objectives that have informed our work on this legislation. One of those objectives is that we want to introduce a structure which will truly empower local communities, permitting them to play a key role in the development of appropriate responses to the youth work needs of young people.
Another key objective is that we are anxious to afford youth work groups at local level a significant input to the formulation and implementation of youth work policy at local and regional level. We are also motivated by an awareness that it is through the work of volunteers on the ground that the bulk of youth work opportunities are provided in communities throughout the country and that volunteerism is something special to the Irish youth service which needs to be fostered in every way possible. Accordingly, we strongly believe that voluntary youth councils, composed of volunteer youth leaders elected in the way described in the Bill, will meet our key objectives.
The voluntary youth councils will also be the vehicle for the representation of the voluntary youth work sector on the education board youth work committees. In fact, one of the vital functions of the councils will be to nominate persons for appointment to the youth work committee of the relevant education board. I stress in this regard, however, that it will be possible for voluntary youth councils to nominate whomsoever they wish for appointment to the education board youth work committees including, as the National Youth Council of Ireland requested, the National Youth Federation, Foróige and others and employees of youth work organisations. In deference to the representations made by the National Youth Council of Ireland and others, I decided to withdraw my Committee Stage amendments in the other House to sections 14(2)(b) and 18(2)(c) circulated on 29 April 1997. Those amendments were aimed at ensuring that only people actually in membership of voluntary youth councils could be nominated by the council for appointment to the relevant youth work committee.
The effect of withdrawing those amendments is that it will be possible for voluntary youth councils to nominate whomsoever they wish for appointment to the education board youth work committees including, as I said, employees of youth work organisations. Nevertheless, my fundamental belief is that people who are actually members of a voluntary youth council would normally be in the best position to represent the views and interests of that voluntary youth council. I also reaffirm my commitment to the empowerment of the volunteer youth leaders in local communities who give the Irish youth service its unique character and who provide the bulk of youth work opportunities. Having said that, I accept, having carefully considered the well argued representations made by the National Youth Council of Ireland in particular, that there may be special circumstances where a voluntary youth council may wish to be represented on the relevant education board youth work committee by employees of youth work organisations.
The Youth Work Bill arises from an exhaustive process of consultation carried out with all the partners in youth work. This consultation continued after the publication of the Bill. For example, on Committee Stage in the other House, amendments proposed by me to sections 3, 4, and 6 were agreed. Those amendments were made following consultation with the National Youth Council of Ireland which expressed concern that the existing wording might be interpreted by some education boards as meaning that the needs of disadvantaged young people should be dealt with prior to all others. In the interests of consensus, I agreed to the council's proposal that the word "priority" should not be used. The replacement phrase specifying that "particular regard" will be had to the youth work needs of disadvantaged young people aged ten to 21 will be satisfactory in terms of the achievement of the essential aim of the original wording.
The other House also agreed to amendments to sections 11 and 22 that I proposed on Committee Stage following consultation with the National Youth Council of Ireland which asked that the Department's commitment to partnership should be explicitly stated in section 11, which deals with the membership of the national youth work advisory committee. I indicated in the Youth Work Bill explanatory memorandum my basic commitment to equality between the number of representatives of prescribed body representing voluntary youth work organisations on the advisory committee and the number of representatives of Departments and agencies. On consideration of the views expressed, therefore, I decided to build provision for this equality into section 11, while retaining the right of the Minister to appoint an additional person to act as chairperson and at least one and not more than three additional direct ministerial nominees who would be experts with special knowledge of or experience in youth work.
The Dáil also accepted my amendment to section 11 providing for the nomination by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of a representative on the advisory committee. This was done on the recommendation of the National Youth Council of Ireland and in recognition of the increasing international dimension to youth work. The Dáil approved a technical amendment to section 22, which was aimed at ensuring there would be a correct cross-reference, in light of the substantive amendment of section 11, between sections 11 and 22 to the prescribed organisation representing voluntary youth work organisations.
Accordingly, nobody can say I was unwilling to engage in wide-ranging consultation, which I did until the last minute possible. The time has come, therefore, when all reasonable compromises have been made in this Bill and when more changes run the risk of diluting some of its central principles. Decision making time has, therefore, arrived and I do not want to be like those politicians whom Winston Churchill so memorably lambasted in the thirties when he said they "decided only to be undecided, resolved only to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent".
I am satisfied there has been sufficient consultation and consideration and that the Youth Work Bill is good legislation. Since becoming Minister of State, I have done my utmost to promote dialogue with maximum openness and transparency. This Bill bears all the hallmarks of that philosophy. I commend it to the House.