Mr. Seán Campbell:

I will be quick. I have three responses.

First, in response to Deputy Troy on the area of overlapping of services, the issue with the early intervention programmes is not one of overlapping but of the lack of availability of the services. To continue with the example of the Big Brother Big Sister programme, it is only available in half of the country because we have never had the resources and it is the only one if its type - there is no overlapping.

In the youth work area, where I have some expertise and knowledge, it is also not a question of overlapping, but of an inadequate distribution of resources. If one is a young person in Dublin, there is a spend on you in terms of youth services of approximately €300. If one lives in Cavan, the spend is €1. If one lives west of the Shannon, it is less than €10. The services have not been resourced, certainly not equally across the country.

On Deputy Ó Caoláin's comment, it would be shameful if the programme is let go. We were challenged by Government all along to develop evidence-based early intervention programmes. That was the challenge and it has been the rhetoric for ten years. Sadly, Mr. Finlay and myself joked beforehand that the best way to destroy a programme is to approve it. We have been challenged and we stood up to the challenge. We now have an evidence base of what works for young people in Ireland and we need the funding to ensure that is available.