Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Since 2007 the Young Ballymun project has built a collective community plan for children's services, with 30 active partners across the health, education, early years and community sectors. This project has been very successful in helping to improve the lot of children in this area and is a best practice model that should be rolled out across the State. Ballymun has suffered and continues to suffer from disadvantage and child poverty, but it has made significant strides to deal with these issues, in particular since the inception of Young Ballymun in 2007.

Since then almost €20 million has been invested in rolling out a strategy to address the causes and effects of child poverty. This was made possible by the generosity and foresight of Atlantic Philanthropies and their partnership with the Department of Health and the Office of the Minister for Children, now the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

In December 2009 the Young Ballymun plan moved into full operation, investing in primary care health services, early years providers, primary schools and family and community services in a shared vision to improve learning and well-being outcomes for children in Ballymun. Working with teachers, principals and parents, literacy outcomes in primary schools have significantly improved. An analysis of school literacy test data has shown that the number of children in need of learning support halved from 2007 to 2015, and the proportion of children with reading difficulty decreased by nearly a third. In spite of the adverse economic conditions, the banking crisis, the recession and major reductions in public investment and public services, the plan has been, and is being, successfully implemented and the outcomes are remarkable. Improved outcomes for children in Ballymun have been measured with high levels of literacy improvement across primary schools, improved child social and emotional development and, crucially, measurable improvements in parenting know-how and in the mental health of parents. These measures have laid the foundation stones for long-term social regeneration and breaking the cycle of poverty. To achieve real change for communities experiencing social disadvantage, the realisation that this a long-term project is essential. However, extra funding is needed to complete the programme.

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