John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I am grateful for this opportunity and I welcome the fact that the Minister, Deputy Quinn, has come to the House to respond. As he is aware, the Meitheal programme in Wexford commenced in 1997 as a pilot scheme in New Ross CBS, when 12 students from the school were chosen to be Meitheal leaders. At the time it was funded by the local Lions club. Since then the Meitheal programme has expanded to cater for 21 schools throughout the county. It is a programme that enables students to take responsibility for the happiness of others and the safety and well-being of all who share the school environment.

The programme is advertised among senior students, who are invited to become leaders. All applicants are interviewed and this is followed by a selection process. The training programme operates during the summer before the students return to school in September. The programme covers personal development, identity, self-esteem, communication skills, listening skills, assertiveness skills, group dynamics, group management and many other skills necessary for the students to develop if the programme is to be successful. After training the students return to their respective schools as sixth years and each is made responsible for a number of incoming first years. It is then the task of the Meitheal leaders to ensure the smooth transition of these first years into the school, and they must be able and available to assist them in any way necessary during the first few days and during the year. The Meitheal programme has been very successful and I have attended a number of awards ceremonies, which are held at the end of the year and are a highlight of the year. The students are very involved on a day-to-day basis.

In recent months I have received numerous letters from former Meitheal leaders, first years who availed of the programme and teachers expressing serious concern about the withdrawal of funding, particularly from schools outside DEIS areas. They feel that as the programme has been so successful in County Wexford, funding should be made available not only in Wexford but throughout the country. I find it very difficult to accept that the Minister would withdraw this funding. It is not a huge amount of money but it is very important to ensure that the 21 schools in County Wexford continue to avail of the scheme.

I have copies of many of the letters sent to the Minister and his office.

One letter states:

I am writing to you because I am concerned that the budget of Meitheal is being cut. I would really appreciate if you took the time to read my letter because I think you need to know how important it is to have a Meitheal leader when coming into secondary school. I am currently a student in the Presentation Secondary. I started first year in August last year. I found it hard to settle in but then I found that the Meitheal leaders were very helpful and very supportive and enabled me to settle down much better in the school.

I have found it difficult to find a home for the Meitheal programme, because the office of the Minister, Deputy Quinn, referred me to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, and that Minister then referred me to another office to deal with the programme. I reiterate that it is a very important programme that requires a continuation of its funding, and I ask the Minister to reconsider the position.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I thank Deputy Browne for raising this matter. I can confirm my Department provided funding of €40,000 to the Meitheal programme in December 2011. The Meitheal programme has not received any funding from the Department since that date. The programme previously was allocated funding through the fund for the development of targeted educational responses to certain children at risk between 2000, the millennium year, and 2010. This source of funding was discontinued following a decision in budget 2009. The programme received funding as an interim measure in December 2010 and, as I stated, it also received funding in December 2011 as an exceptional measure to allow for the period up to the end of the 2011-12 school year.

As has been noted, the Meitheal programme began in 1997 as a pilot scheme at CBS secondary school in New Ross. It is a training programme for students at senior level in secondary schools. In this programme, students are trained to become mentors for incoming students at junior level. It is a programme based on peer respect between students and one that enables students to take responsibility for the happiness of others and for the safety and well-being of all who share a school environment. The programme is advertised among senior students who are invited to become Meitheal leaders in their respective schools. All applicants are interviewed and a selection is then made. The students who are chosen to become Meitheal leaders undergo a training programme in the summer prior to their return to school the following September. This training programme covers a number of areas including personal development, identity, self-esteem, communication skills, listening skills, assertiveness skills, group dynamics and group management. After their training, the students return to their respective schools as sixth-year students and each is given responsibility for a number of incoming first-year students.

The Meitheal programme works with 21 post-primary schools in County Wexford. Of these 21 post-primary schools, eight currently are participating in the DEIS programme. I must tell the Deputy and other Members that at a time of severely reduced resources, priorities must be decided, and the Department continues to target enhanced resources to the disadvantaged under its DEIS programme and to pupils with special needs. As the Meitheal programme mainly operates within non-DEIS schools, it simply is not possible to provide financial support, as funding is prioritised to other areas.

The programme was evaluated by the evaluation support and research unit of the Department in conjunction with the inspectorate of the regional directorate in 2009. While the evaluation was positive towards the programme in its findings, the discontinuation of the fund for the development of targeted educational responses to certain children at risk, together with the requirement to achieve significant budgetary targets to bring public expenditure down to a sustainable level, mean that no funding strand is available for the Meitheal programme. Meitheal was advised in January 2012 that no further funding could be made to the programme due to the discontinuation of the children at risk fund.

John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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While I thank the Minister for his reply, I am very disappointed by his negative attitude towards the funding. It is held widely that when the aforementioned evaluation was conducted, those involved recommended strongly that this programme was very worthwhile and should continue. I again ask the Minister to reconsider the position because in every letter I have received from the principals of the 21 schools concerned, they all have referred to the fact of bullying in schools, about which all Members are concerned. The principals have stated that the Meitheal programme has led to a reduction in bullying-type behaviour and has added to the well-being of school first-year students during the transition from primary to secondary school. The principals state that the programme has advanced to the stage whereby students who have been at its receiving end now aspire to be Meitheal leaders. This programme costs little in the greater scheme of things but delivers so much in terms of the well-being of students. I ask the Minister, even at this late hour, to reconsider and have a rethink on this matter and to ascertain what can be done to provide at least some of the funding the programme received in the past. It would be a pity for the scheme to be abolished because of the small amount of moneys successive Ministers have been making available to it down through the years. The Minister should think again of the importance of this programme, as well as the tremendous work that has been done on the programme on a voluntary basis, both by the Meitheal leaders and by the teachers, who must not be forgotten. The teachers concerned have bought into the Meitheal programme and have given many hours outside their normal teaching hours to make sure it was a success throughout County Wexford. I therefore ask the Minister to reconsider the position.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I regret that I am unable to respond to the Deputy as positively as I would wish. I understand this was a pilot project that, as the Deputy has noted, has been very successful in County Wexford. However, were one to multiply that by the other counties to which, in terms of equity, it must be applied in order to implement it on a national scale, it would cost much more than €40,000. Quite frankly, the Government is still facing a difficult budget. While people's memories may be somewhat short, the legacy of Fianna Fáil's economic collapse is still very real. Deputy Browne can shake his head all he wishes.

John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Government has been in office for three years.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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It will be another three years before we are out of it, but for some people whose lives have been ruined, the damage is permanent. The Deputy can shake his head for as long as he wishes. Money simply is not available in the form under discussion and one simply must consider other resources. I am facing an extremely challenging budget in the coming year and have had difficulties in previous years. It would be very easy for me to stand up à laFianna Fáil, which did this for years, and simply state that the money will be found for the Deputy, that the Deputy will be all right on the day and so on.

John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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It is a very small amount of money.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Yes, it is a small amount of money, until one multiplies it by every school in the country, and then it becomes a couple of million euro. There are schools that are running similar programmes, and one must learn how to do things. The culture of dependency on a grant for this and extra cash for that was characteristic of Fianna Fáil from 1997 until the collapse. The party would throw money at a problem to try to buy votes and get a result, but ultimately it lost all the votes it had and left a legacy of destruction around the country. I suggest that the lessons learned from the Meitheal programme could possibly be explored in a more modest way in the Wexford area, and I will tell the Deputy the reason I believe this would be worthwhile. The conventional thinking in the note prepared for me is to concentrate on DEIS schools. In fact, however, the majority of people who come from disadvantaged backgrounds are actually outside DEIS schools, and this is a unique attribute of the scheme to which the Deputy referred.

There may be alternative proposals that can encompass some of the principles and ideas contained within the Meitheal programme, which is a good scheme, and which do not necessarily require money. I note the presence of buddy systems in other schools that do not cost money. There are ways in which the leadership and pastoral care potential of students can be enhanced that do not cost money. While one should not throw out the baby with the bathwater, the money simply is not there. As for the old-style Fianna Fáil attitude of finding money and throwing it at people in the hope that it will stick, or whatever, that option simply is not around any more, be it in education, health or elsewhere. We must find ways of working within our own resources, which remain limited.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I understand Deputy Harrington intends to defer the Topical Issue matter in his name.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I ask the Deputy to propose that.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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If I may clarify, I understand the Minister will be available next Tuesday.