John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

I agree with the Deputy that activity for young people is very important. Very many sports facilities have been created under the sports capital programme in recent years. In other areas we have the young people's facilities and services fund providing additional facilities. If I have seen a weakness at all, it is as follows. In recent years we have provided a considerable amount of sporting activity which is fine for people who are that way inclined. However, the deficit has been in alternative social and recreational activities.

In recent years we have started to embark on issues like youth cafés. While some of those are funded through the people's facilities and services fund and others, they are a new model. We need to ascertain how to have a youth café that has real impact and with which people can associate. In my relatively short period in this position, I have visited a number of them and they are all doing different things in different ways. I recently visited the Gaf youth café in Galway which is outstanding in terms of what it is achieving. Rather than simply providing more youth cafés or more facilities, we need to focus not just on the facility or staff, but on what it is that makes it successful. I agree absolutely with the Deputy that those sorts of initiatives on the social and recreational side, in addition to what has already happened on the sporting side, are the way to go. Young people need alternative distractions to keep them from engaging in drugs misuse.

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