Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)

I come from an area where I was involved in a youth project where young people would have dropped out of school. That is where the problems start arising. We worked very closely with the Garda where we had the young people on a training programme. The people we took in were over 15. It is important to note that in a lot of these cases there is no family support. This is what I am saying to the Minister of State about the youth diversion programme. When someone finishes with the programme, that family support may still not be there. I wonder about the checks and balances that are there and about review of the current scheme. For instance, we did a review of the operation. We had 50 young people in training at any one time. We did a review and looked at the people who were with us five years earlier. This was at a time when unemployment was high, but we found that 70% of them had full-time employment whereas the family history would not have been great as regards employment. It just goes to show that where proper supports are put in place it does work. Has there been any review of the programme over recent years?

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