Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know the Cork Life Centre does not come under the remit of the Department. It provides young people who have dropped out of school with a structured education. The funding provided for it is under €200,000 for 50 children. In the case of Oberstown, €24 million is being spent on 46 children. Do we need to look at a better way of approaching this in a more structured way? I was involved in one of these facilities for a long number of years. I have raised this matter at the committee previously. We had up to 50 young people in with us at any one time. Most of them were referred to us by the Garda. They had dropped out of school, had become involved in minor incidents and the Garda stepped in before they got into major difficulty. Many of the facilities providing this kind support developed when people got together and set them up rather than one Department being involved. Do we now need to look at that and have a more structured way of dealing with it?