Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There has been a real change in thinking. I started teaching in the 1970s when the idea was to give young people all the facts and that will turn them off everything. The school I worked in was one of the pilot schools for the "On my own two feet" scheme. It then moved away from the facts and went into self-esteem and assertiveness, but we need both and to have a much more holistic approach. This is a question of healthy living, not just ideas around substance abuse and misuse.

I chair the prevention and education sub-group in the north inner city. We ran four youth conventions and about 400 fifth year and transition year students from the north inner city attended. At the round-table discussions, facilitated by their leaders from the various youth projects, they confirmed what I said about it being hit or miss. We are having a round-table discussion with people who are very involved in prevention and education and I hope to meet the Minister after that meeting because this is not getting the attention it needs and we are building up problems.

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