Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. Many of the issues I intended to raise have been raised. However, there is the issue of commercial rates in respect of child care facilities and the cost to the facility. On the one hand the Department is disbursing money to the facility and, on the other, a local authority takes it back. Can that issue be tackled, and speedily? It is extremely important.

The other issue I raised earlier in a private discussion is the Life Centre in Cork, where there are 45 children who have dropped out of school. They do not fit into any category. The Department of Education and Skills says it is not its problem. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs, and I have met the Minister, says it is not its problem, and the Department of Justice and Equality says the same. The 45 children have dropped out of the school system. School attendance officers have no difficulty in referring them to the centre but it is only getting €47,500 per annum. When I visited Oberstown I looked at the figures for that facility. One person there costs approximately €350,000 per year. Even if one person exited the facility we are providing in the Life Centre in Cork to Oberstown, and I am not saying that will happen, it is a huge cost issue. One size does not fit all and we have people who do not fit into the education system. The issue is how we deal with that and how we react at a very early stage, not when it is gone beyond where we can help the child and help the parents to keep the child out of difficulties and out of the criminal justice system. It is something we must examine, and we must do so quite quickly because a number of children are caught up in that. I ask that it be examined.