Dr. John Sweeney:

I thank Senator Higgins for drawing attention to two issues which I overlooked. In regard to whether more can be done for area-based initiatives, it is close to my heart because I earned my spurs at one stage by living and working in what is still an unemployment black spot all of 30 years later. It drags on me when I hear those who are now activists in that area using sentences that I would have used nearly 30 years ago and asking what has changed here? What has changed over the 30 years is that the investment going into the area through multiple Departments and different types of programmes has enormously increased. At the time I was active in this area to get a youth employment agency grant of £5,000 was the highest accolade one could get. The budgets of some of the area-based interventions is much bigger.

I would point out that for all we have done with area-based interventions over the last two or three decades we have never given them the dignity of seeking to evaluate well what they were achieving. We still do not know if some area-based partnerships work better than others. Why? Of those who entered the programmes and received the subsidised services, what have they achieved? This is not an argument for discontinuing but it is an argument for bringing the same evaluation that we give to some programmes to more of the area-based work. Unemployment black spots have been far too persistent.