Mr. Fred McBride:

Deputies Conway and Regina Doherty very sensibly asked what will change, and it is a very important question. I hope there will be three changes. The first is we will have more dedicated aftercare services, and we are attempting to have dedicated aftercare services in each of the 17 areas. Currently, some of those services are split across different groups of staff, and some social workers, for example, will hold aftercare cases in their busy workloads. Creating a dedicated service will help to bring a difference. In providing such a dedicated service we would train people who have the right skills and experience to engage with young people. The issue of young people who are hard to reach was mentioned and the skill of keeping young people engaged will be very important. There will be a difference in that respect.

We have also said that in each area we will have a multi-agency aftercare committee where there will be multi-agency planning for aftercare services. Hopefully, people will begin to see the benefits of that.

The third area is better information and-or advice on access to services. The committee will perhaps be aware that as part of the creation of the new agency we have taken under our wing what was the Family Support Agency, which has in excess of 100 family resource centres across the country. We are carefully examining whether these family resource centres could be a good access point for young people seeking information and advice about aftercare services, even after a period when they have opted out and, perhaps, social work departments and aftercare workers have lost track of them because they do not know where they have gone. Those family resource centres are community based and located in many of the areas where those young people are from and live, so they are very accessible and can be used as a type of drop-in point for young people, including young people who wish to return to a service after a period of disengagement. It is an opportunity for our new agency to have that resource at our disposal.

There was also a question about hard-to-reach young people. Our partners in the non-governmental sector are also very good at engaging and tracking young people who are hard to reach. Sometimes these young people see the community and voluntary sector as not being part of the system and therefore they are more willing to engage, so there is greater partnership in that regard. In addition, over €50 million is spent on youth services. Those services must be harnessed as well for engaging with some of these young people.

In terms of the resource issue, I have a responsibility to manage within the resources I am given. Whether there will be any additional resources associated with this legislation is not for me to say, but I can say that if we are successful at this multi-agency approach, that will bring many more resources to the table than is currently the case.