Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Along with Deputy Durkan I could talk all day on this topic because it is complex. I welcome the three witnesses who are specialists in the field. Unfortunately, they are posing as many questions to us as we wish to pose to them.

The €6 billion from the European Union is more than welcome. I presume it would be over the five year period of the budget and internationally targeted throughout. I understand it will probably be broken down even within wealthier countries to targeted areas of disadvantage.

A major problem in this country is the class and structural divide between the early school leavers and the social housing dependent groups. I want to ask about the type of structures we should be putting in place. When I first got involved in the community sector I almost had to learn a new language but even in terms of targeting people into employment, we currently have JobBridge, community employment, Tús, the JobsPlus initiative and the Momentum programme. I do not know at this stage whether the CERT training programme still exists. That was a training programme for people in the catering industry. We also have SOLAS as a new structure.

My particular interest is in the statistics the witnesses presented to the committee, particularly about targeting the long-term unemployed. The long-term unemployed, in the main, tend to be early school leavers but I understand this European youth guarantee only comes into play for those between the ages of 18 and 24. To talk geographically, I represent Dublin South Central and I can tell the witnesses that one can read the statistics about the degrees of disadvantage in Dublin 10 and Dublin 8. The disadvantage is comparable in terms of early school leavers, social housing schemes, all the inner city flat complexes. In terms of Cherry Orchard and Ballyfermot, Dublin 10, there is a large number of statistics to prove disadvantage.

Do we need a number of new structures to target people? Somebody mentioned the need to involve the community and voluntary sector. Those of us who know the area well will be aware of the EU urban programme attached to Cherry Orchard and Ballyfermot, of which I was a big fan. That programme transformed Cherry Orchard and Ballyfermot. It was a successful, targeted programme to uplift a community not by way of employment, but by way of the provision of services from crèches to preschool facilities, parks, leisure centres and so on. Do the witnesses believe there is any validity in arguing that specific structures be put in place within regions of Dublin, for example, targeting a particular structure in Dublin 8 and Dublin 10 for a particular coterie of people?