Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

In many respects, we have done what the Deputy is describing, albeit in a different way. The audit we have done is based on the CSO's small area population data. This is at the level of a large estate or a couple of hundred houses. We have based our audit not on what groups are in the area, but on socioeconomic deprivation. Two years ago, I launched the empowering communities programme. That targeted 14 of the most deprived areas across the country and placed a community worker in them, partly with a view to helping the community to organise itself. I hope to add two more to that list in the coming weeks. With regard to what we do in the Department, that is the closest we have got. I would like to expand that. There are many areas of deprivation around the country that do not self-organise and need a bit of support. Of the tools we have in the Department, that is the most relevant to the issue the Deputy has raised.

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