Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the issue of the Government examining and ensuring proper funding for the Targeting Resources at Youth, TRY, programme at St. Teresa's Gardens. The funding is needed to ensure work undertaken to date, as well as work to come in future, is placed on a sustainable footing. A funding proposal from the TRY programme has been sent to the relevant Minister. TRY is a very specific programme aimed at some of those directly involved in drug taking, drug dealing, in many instances, drug-related anti-social behaviour and violence in the area of St. Teresa's Gardens in Dublin's south inner city. The area in question is currently the subject of a regeneration programme. It has suffered greatly over decades because of the scourge of drugs. Many of the solutions now commonplace across the city came from this community in the south-west inner city. That happened because the community understood how to address issues it faced. It knew how to address the needs of some of the young people caught up in the drugs culture present in the past 20 years in many local authority housing complexes and in many of our cities. The programme determined how to address those needs and ensure that young people are not involved.

The TRY programme, and the Donore community drugs team, ran a pilot scheme that was very successful. This was proven by the evaluation of the programme. The problem is that funding for the programme has ended. Dublin City Council, in fairness, understood that what is needed is not just a regeneration of houses and apartments. Sometimes part of the community also has to be regenerated. It funded the programme on a once-off basis. The understanding was that the Department of Health, the Department of Education and Skills or the Government would address the need to fund this organisation. What is being proposed is an outreach programme. It deals with young people and their families. Those young people are sometimes in a situation where other drugs workers would not engage with them.

The outcome of the programme to date has been very encouraging. Of the last 18 young people who were part of the programme, nine have gone on to mainstream services. They were not engaging with those services previously. Those young people can now be further stabilised and encouraged to go back to education or into some type of employment. One young person on the programme previously has gone on to college. Another was engaged with one of the larger contractors in the area. There have, therefore, been successes and those are measurable because the people in question are identified. What is being sought, as far as I know, is €150,000 to allow the continuing employment of staff. There are only two part-time youth workers holding the fort at present. It is being requested that there be three full-time staff and that funding continue for two years. That would give some consistency to the programme and address one of the pockets of major anti-social behaviour and violence identified, not just by the community, but also by youth workers and An Garda Síochána.

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