John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her reply and I welcome the fact that the number of projects and programmes is being extended. While I welcome it, I also wish to voice a note of caution. My particular area of concern in this question - I am not diminishing the importance of other areas of youth affairs - relates, in particular, to preventative programmes. The Minister and I both represent areas of significant disadvantage. We know that young people in those areas are at greater risk of drug addiction and associated problems. The point I am making is that we need to channel significant resources into those areas in order to afford opportunities to those people. Perhaps there are not many votes in it - it is not a very popular matter and there is not a loud lobby in respect of it - but the Minister and I know that it is the right thing to do. My hope is that a disproportionate amount of the funding that becomes available will be used in a targeted way.

I acknowledge the reports that were compiled in the context of value for money and assessing the value of the projects. I do not want to see projects just being funded; I want projects that are delivering results on the ground and benefiting communities and that can be stood over to be funded. However, I believe that we have a significant catch-up from the previous number of years, during which, unfortunately, there was no additional funding and no additional projects.

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