Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

So long as it is both because what we need is action. I agree that a certain amount of consultation is taking place and that is good but it is not reaching some of the most vulnerable young people. I am concerned about that. I meet young people in the course of my political work whom nobody has ever consulted and we need to reach them. I commend Emily Logan, the Ombudsman for Children, who is doing a very good job and is listening to young people. I hope the proposals from her office will be implemented.

There is a reference in the motion to addressing issues pertaining to alcohol-related harm, preventing drug misuse, promoting good nutrition and combating obesity, promotion of healthier lifestyles, mental health awareness and suicide prevention programmes, sexual health awareness and so on. Many of the issues referred to in the motion concern the health of young people. Side by side with that I raised the question of child and adolescent psychiatric services. The answer I received from the Health Service Executive stated there are currently 12 public inpatient beds available for young people. Last night I spoke to a mother of a 17 year-old girl who is in an adult psychiatric ward. There is no psychiatric bed near where she lives. There are only 12 such beds in the whole country, six in Galway and six in Dublin. This unfortunate child is in an adult psychiatric ward. That is an example of the terrible psychiatric services for young people.

Community services are no better. There is no walk-in area where young people can go if they are worried, feel suicidal or have psychological problems or lack self-esteem. According to this answer there are 3,598 children on waiting lists for the community psychiatric services for young people. Deputy Dan Neville walked out of the debate on psychological services last night because he was so angry that programmes are being reorganised by the Minister rather than being pooled in regard to the prevention of suicide in young people.

We need to be serious about addressing the health problems of young people. We can have grand statements about alcohol abuse and drug abuse, including the article we read in yesterday's edition of the Irish Examiner. However, they are no good unless they are practical and reach young people. In regard to the use of alcohol, one can buy a 24 pack of beer in off-licences in residential areas all over the country for €15.99, as I saw on the window of an off-licence yesterday. Off-licences are springing up all over residential areas. Older people can go into them and buy for young people. I have asked young people about this, it is as simple as pie. Some 13 and 14 year olds have no problem getting access to cheap alcohol. It is cheaper to buy a can or a bottle of beer than a bar of chocolate. Unless we begin to address these serious issues that young people have to deal with we will not get anywhere.

I turn to some of the recreational facilities that young people say they want, such as youth cafes. We have had a good deal of talk about them but very few of them are up and running. Young people have been consulted all over the country in regard to what they want. In my area they have said they want youth cafes but no stone has been turned in regard to the provision of a youth cafe in Limerick where there is a big problem with young people who do things they should not do. If they had places to go perhaps there would be less chance of them doing what they should not do. In regard to skateboard parks there is a funding problem but finally we got it sorted out in Limerick following much lobbying by the young people themselves and their supporters.

Young people will not believe we are serious unless we get rid of the obstacles to the provision of such services for them. If one is 13 years old and wants a particular recreational facility and is 19 or 20 years of age by the time it is provided, one has lost faith in the political system. There must be a sense of urgency.

On the issue of young people who drop out of school and have difficulties with the school curriculum, there are as many young people dropping out early as there were ten years ago. That is statistically accurate. The Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, Deputy Haughey, will be aware of some of these issues. It appears we are not reaching a certain cohort of young people. When they drop out there is no method of tracing them and keeping with them. If they dropped out for a job there is no method of tracing them to ensure they have not lost that job in a years' time and drifted into crime. Those young people are as entitled to training and education and a future as those who go on to do a PhD and yet we just lose them and forget about them. We bring in people from other countries to do the jobs these people might well want to do if they got some training and education. I strongly believe we need a social guarantee for all young people in order that they will be tracked and given an opportunity for a bright future.

The school curriculum needs to be changed. The leaving certificate curriculum is absolute anathema to a small section of our young people who are not academic minded and do not want to learn off reams of material in order to regurgitate it in an examination and forget about it because it will not be useful to them for the rest of their lives. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has made fairly wide proposals on reform of the leaving certificate and the Minister for Education and Science will do nothing except slightly change the timetable of the examination. That will do a huge disservice to a cohort of young people who drop out and lose faith in the system, in some cases losing faith in themselves and possibly being at risk of suicide, and in other cases turning on their own communities and causing all kinds of mayhem and destruction.

The problems of anti-social behaviour, crime and young people getting into gangs, who later commit serious crimes, will not be addressed unless we deal with the reasons they are dropping out of school and losing faith in the system. Unless there is cross-departmental action between the Minister of State with responsibility for youth work and the Ministers for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Health and Children and Enterprise, Trade and Employment, leading them into FÁS schemes and work, which is a positive response, we will not get anywhere. All the woolly language in the Minister's speech does nothing for me. There is nothing specific in it about what will be done. I would like to see positive proposals with specific timeframes regarding how we intend to increase the speed with which we respond to young people, whether these proposals involve youth cafes, skateboard parks, sports facilities, reform of the educational curriculum or providing locations young people feel comfortable walking into if they have problems of mental health, suicidal tendencies or concern about a wide variety of young people's issues.

Some of the reasons young people turn to abuse of alcohol, drugs and so on are that they have bad self image, are easily led by other stronger people in their group and get a sense of bravado from being identified with those who are big in their communities. Unless we begin to improve their self esteem and provide the supports they need and alternative activities, we will continue to come to the House to offer pious platitudes in this regard.

We must respond to young people. We need to get Departments working together. We need specific programmes of action with timetables and funding attached. We need to bring in Emily Logan and her office, which has a very good sense of what young people want. Ms Logan and her office have a lot of cred and are popular with and trusted by young people. They need to be brought into the delivery system.

I do not want this debate to be a useless exercise; I want it to have a positive outcome. When the Minister of State responds, I hope he will deal with the issues raised by myself and other Members and that we will get practical proposals with real-time implementation dates. We need to respond to young people or the depressing situation with regard to alcohol, drugs and crime will continue. We need to provide fundamental intervention if young people are to recognise that we want to provide them with facilities.

At the next election, I do not want young people approaching me to say they have nothing to do and nowhere to go, and that they must hang around corners, annoying the owner of the corner shop, who must move them on. That is not doing a good service to young people. I hope we will have a better response than we have had to date.

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