Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I think Ms Hurley has hit the nail on the head. The issue is access to senior officials. With the funding in the inner cities, they have access to senior officials because of the initial involvement of the Department of the Taoiseach. It is not sustainable for the Department of the Taoiseach to operate this programme. It is not every area; only a small number of areas have the level of disadvantage we are talking about. The difficulty is that Dublin City Council has set up a number; for example, Cherry Orchard and Darndale are set up. Darndale does not have access to senior officials while Cherry Orchard seems to have access to the Department of Justice.

The Department of Rural and Community Development has a role to convene the other Departments. The Department of Education has a massive role. We have the DEIS programme and we should have a DEIS+ programme. If we gave money to schools in disadvantaged areas, we would solve many problems around issues like Youthreach, the youth encounter projects and the HSE. The Department of Rural and Community Development has that convening role. The local authorities are important and that sits with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The Department of Rural and Community Development has responsibility for community and therefore provides the funding. The Department of Rural and Community Development and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage through local government are the two Departments which ultimately should inherit this from the Department of the Taoiseach because that is how it will be done sustainably.

Just as we have a top-class response to rural Ireland - I think Our Rural Future is a top-class response to rural Ireland - we need to have that same top-class response to disadvantaged areas. It is not just all about money. It is about having senior officials in a room and telling them that in our area X number of children are out of school and asking them to establish a specific pilot programme in the area to keep those kids in school, or asking if they know that our area has the highest level of opioid use, for example. Tallaght might have a different problem and might want the HSE to come in and respond to that. It is local. It is an idea from the 1990s. We just need to resurrect, resource and empower it.