Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the reverend gentlemen and thank them for their presentation, even though it presents a grim picture, as has been said by colleagues. The same message was given to us in east Belfast 12 months ago. Listening to Reverend Hamilton in particular, the situation seems to have deteriorated rather than improved in the meantime. He has mentioned that 75% of youth work is organised by the churches. Is there a difference in participation levels, depending on the areas involved? Is there a particular difference between more affluent and less advantaged areas? I presume the state provides some support for these programmes of youth activities that the churches organise. I compliment the churches on doing what is very necessary and important work.

I wholeheartedly agree with Deputy Jack Wall on the difference education can make. He made these points forcefully when we were in east Belfast. Up until the late 1990s, the State had very poor provision for early and preschool education. From the late 1990s onwards, there has been massive investment in the preschool sector which is now run both by community-based organisations and private providers and it is working extremely well and very effective. When one speaks to teachers at primary and second level, they will always refer to advantage in terms of a child having an opportunity to participate in early childhood education. Reverend Gribben mentioned the report by Dawn Purvis in 2011 and a specific set of recommendations on what needed to be done. We can have all the policies in the world and the best of intentions and reports, but we need intervention. Have the Assembly, the Ministers with responsibility for education - there are two - and the Executive undertaken any pilot project providing for a new method of education and training? Has anything happened to try to tackle the particular problems in these areas? In the past we had the RAPID programme that was targeted at some particularly disadvantaged areas to try to bring together the local authorities and health and education services. My knowledge of it is that it depended on who provided the leadership, but in areas in which there is an all-government or all-agency approach to the issues facing young people, there has been a good outcome, depending on the leadership given by the statutory agencies or the lead agency involved. Has any such project been undertaken in Belfast or other disadvantaged areas?

I compliment the delegates once again on their presentation.