Mr. Sean Campbell:

I wish the Chairman and members a good morning. I thank them for inviting me to this morning’s meeting to say something about our interaction with the new agency.

I will give a short background to Foróige for those who are not familiar with us. We celebrated 60 years in existence in Ireland last year. We work with more than 60,000 young people on an annual basis. Of the 60,000, approximately 40,000 are engaged in universal services – Foróige clubs, youth clubs, youth cafés and youth projects around the country. Approximately 20,000 of the young people we work with on an annual basis come from more difficult backgrounds where we deal with a range of issues. We have a variety of ways in which we work with those young people, for example, Garda youth diversion programmes that are funded through the Department of Justice and Equality. We also run a number of specialist youth services in areas that are regarded as under-serviced or disadvantaged. We operate approximately 24 programmes and projects currently funded through the HSE which will come under the new agency. Those programmes include neighbourhood youth projects, family support programmes and specialised youth cafés, all of which have an early intervention and prevention angle.

In the services that are funded through the HSE we work with approximately 5,000 young people and 1,700 families are referred to us on an annual basis. In some parts of the country we have a very strong working relationship with the HSE. I refer in particular to the west and the north west. In other parts of the country our relationship is non-existent or patchy at best. Even though Foróige is a strong provider of services to young people we do not have a relationship with the funding agency and we are looking to the new agency to make sure that we are available to add value to its work.

I wish to highlight a number of points. Along with Mr. Fergus Finlay, Professor Pat Dolan and everybody here we welcome the formation of this agency, which is long overdue. It needs to be set up quickly, and resourced properly.

We must focus on early intervention and prevention. We must take a leap of faith and put money into preventing the issues becoming problems. We are very good at being reactionary and putting money into dealing with the consequences of systems that have failed. We must take a leap of faith in terms of funding early intervention and prevention.

Like my colleagues, I have concerns about ensuring that the focus is on the young person first and foremost, and not on systems. The focus should be on seeing the potential of the young person, and not just the problem. To do that we need not only the agency but partnerships with existing services, both universal and targeted.

The community and voluntary sector is reeling from cuts. The youth sector has suffered cuts in its funding of over 30% in the past four years yet that sector, in terms of this new agency, will be part of the front line. It will need to support young people and children, yet it is being decimated. It is as if one part of the system is not looking at what the other part is doing, and assuming it will be in place. Currently, it is very vulnerable and it needs support.

Professor Dolan mentioned proven programmes. We are fortunate, because of philanthropic funding in recent years, to have a menu of proven, world-class programmes that we know work. Barnardos have some and Foróige have others, yet these front-line programmes will not be available.

I will give the committee one example. We brought the Big Brother Big Sister programme to Ireland in 2000 because it was a world-class programme proven in the United States and in Canada. It was regarded as one of the best interventions. The World Bank said it was one of 18 programmes worldwide that showed it had an impact on young people and children. We have scaled up the programme in the past decade because of investment from philanthropic organisations including Atlantic Philanthropies and the One Foundation. We have proven the impact of the programme in Ireland through rigorous evaluation - a randomised controlled trial - yet that programme, which young people value and say it is one of the best interventions they have, may not exist next year because there is no one to fund it once the philanthropic funding stops. It is a huge risk for the system and for the new agency if it will not have the partnership supports on the ground to make it work properly.