Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. The work being done by all those people involved in the youth diversion programme is fantastic. They work very hard, also liaising with the Garda. That is what I have found in my experience of working with the local gardaí as regards trying to help people who have dropped out of the education system. One of the problems you find with the youth diversion programme is that one of the reasons people end up in difficulty is as a result of falling out of the education system at a very early stage. Then we try to get them back into any kind of training. For instance, one of the big problems we found with people was difficulty with even literacy and numeracy and making sure there was training available for them. They are afraid of applying for jobs because they have a literacy problem. That is one of the problems. They are afraid of applying for any kind of apprenticeship or any kind of job because those skills are required. Will the Minister of State look at that issue as well?

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