Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

Most people understand this issue but I will explain it. The active citizenship unit in the Taoiseach's office is a facilitator and enabler that encourages others to develop a range of activities. Deputy Stanton mentioned the area of education, for example, and I shall certainly provide him with the list of schools he requested. The use of schools and greater access to community facilities for and by young people is an issue divided between the Department of Education and Science, the Office of the Minister for Children and the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. That is one example. As Deputy Stanton will know, a number of youth cafés have been developed throughout the country. The Office of the Minister for Children, with organisations such as the National Youth Council, has been conducting an evaluation of the effectiveness of some of those venues. Some are very well resourced. The Gaff in Galway is an excellent example, as is The Squashy Couch in Waterford and there is another good one in Sligo. In other cases youth clubs will adapt their facilities on one or two nights a week to encourage greater participation by young people. Again, organisations such as the National Youth Council constantly promote the greater engagement by young people in non-formal education of different types.

I propose to lay before the House in the next couple of days the action plan we are discussing. It will be built around the recommendations of the task force. The steering committee will meet in the first or second week of November. I do not wish to be excessively prescriptive about the work it will do as each of its members has extensive experience in areas such as the statutory, community, sports and youth sectors. With the assistance of officials from different Departments, the work of the steering committee will result in the implementation of the recommendations of the task force on active citizenship.

At the last count, there were 17 volunteering centres in different parts of the country. Supported by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, the objective of the centres is to increase the participation of volunteers in various activities. Some centres have development officers, while others use volunteers or existing staff members to increase the level of participation by all sectors of the community in voluntary and community activity.

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