Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Question 130: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if he has engaged in discussions with the Department of Education and Science with regard to the development of schemes to prevent early school leaving in the context of the new national drugs strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33556/08]

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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During the consultative phase for the new national drugs strategy, I, along with members of the steering group, met representatives of the Department of Education and Science to discuss the issue of early school leaving. That Department is also represented on the steering group charged with developing the new strategy and will be centrally involved in the group's deliberations with regard to the prevention and awareness pillar.

Addressing early school leaving is also a central pillar of the actions aimed at children set out in Towards 2016. A number of mainstream actions were developed by the Department of Education and Science over the lifetime of the previous national development plan and are being further developed under Towards 2016. Among these are the work of the National Education Welfare Board, the National Educational Psychological Service and the home school liaison schemes, and actions under DEIS and the Traveller education strategy.

Under the aegis of my own Department, Pobal and the partnership companies have been developing initiatives to tackle early school leaving from a community perspective through community-based youth initiatives and services for the unemployed measures under the local development social inclusion programme. Community-based initiatives in this area also form part of RAPID education programmes to address, among other things, inter-generational disadvantage.

In this context, the Minister, Deputy Ó Cuív recently launched the education-themed strategy under the RAPID programme. Under this strategy, each RAPID area will be requested to develop a local strategy that will focus on working with local service providers and programmes on the educational needs of RAPID residents with the aim of improving educational outcomes at primary and post-primary level, increasing participation in further and third level education and improving links and communication between education authorities and providers and local RAPID structures.

The steering group for the new drugs strategy is fully aware of the strong correlation between early school leaving and the early onset of problem drug use. They also recognise that dealing with early school leaving is now a central pillar of the Government's wider social inclusion policy and that community initiatives are being developed as outlined above. Therefore, a key question for consideration by the steering group will be how best to identify actions under a new strategy that will complement and add value to the other initiatives in place to deal with this issue.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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A report published in August showed that children who left school at an early age and particularly before doing their junior or leaving certificate examinations were more at risk of taking drugs. Over the summer months I was appalled to see that the Department of Education and Science had made cutbacks in the school completion programme which targets children who leave school early and affects approximately 25,000 children. The National Educational Welfare Board can no longer deal with children who do not attend school for 59 days. It can only deal with children who miss 60 days or more because of under-funding and lack of staff.

Has the Minister of State had discussions with the Minister for Education and Science to ensure that there will be no more cutbacks in these programmes that affect the underprivileged in society? What will he do regarding the national drugs strategy? Will he provide funding to try to help keep young people at school? It is very important that this programme is kept up. Whatever hope we have, if we do not deal with them at an early age, we will have no hope if they leave the school system uneducated. They will go out into the world and, naturally, they will take drugs. What will the Minister of State do about that? The Minister of State will shortly announce a national drugs strategy. I hope it will have funding to deal with this issue and to educate children in the schools about the effect of drugs.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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I agree with the Deputy that early school leaving correlates to those who engage in drug taking, as has been clearly demonstrated. While one can argue figures in whatever way one likes, in recent years on a national level most of the figures indicate that participation rates in second level education in particular have improved. I do not want to go into them in great detail. While that might not have improved as much as we would like, the quarterly national household survey showed that in 2001, some 16.1% of people had not completed leaving certificate examinations. That had reduced to 14.3% in 2006, which indicates the situation is improving.

The Deputy asked specifically what my Department would do to keep children in school. Separate from the Department of Education and Science, most of the projects we run are community-based projects through the task forces aimed at disadvantaged areas where the incidence and the risk are greater. That will continue to be the case.

Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Obviously boredom is the biggest problem for children who leave school early. They then move on to experiment with drugs, etc., and then get caught in the net of drugs misuse. The Minister of State and his predecessor would agree with me regarding the alternatives including sport and recreation which we need to develop. Any examination of those who leave school early would show that the children are not involved in useful activity with their peers. In future, I hope we will see drop-in centres etc., being created in those areas so that these children will have some place to go. If their parents are working, the children are at home on their own and boredom sets in. Is funding available for drop-in centres, particularly in RAPID areas? What is the Minister of State doing to ensure the involvement of children in some form of recreation to ensure their minds are kept active and avoid boredom leading them to experiment with drugs?

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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I agree with the Deputy that activity for young people is very important. Very many sports facilities have been created under the sports capital programme in recent years. In other areas we have the young people's facilities and services fund providing additional facilities. If I have seen a weakness at all, it is as follows. In recent years we have provided a considerable amount of sporting activity which is fine for people who are that way inclined. However, the deficit has been in alternative social and recreational activities.

In recent years we have started to embark on issues like youth cafés. While some of those are funded through the people's facilities and services fund and others, they are a new model. We need to ascertain how to have a youth café that has real impact and with which people can associate. In my relatively short period in this position, I have visited a number of them and they are all doing different things in different ways. I recently visited the Gaf youth café in Galway which is outstanding in terms of what it is achieving. Rather than simply providing more youth cafés or more facilities, we need to focus not just on the facility or staff, but on what it is that makes it successful. I agree absolutely with the Deputy that those sorts of initiatives on the social and recreational side, in addition to what has already happened on the sporting side, are the way to go. Young people need alternative distractions to keep them from engaging in drugs misuse.

Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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In my constituency of Dublin South Central, particularly the inner city parts of it, 29% of people left school before doing junior certificate examinations. My past experience was as a voluntary youth worker in a community. When children leave school at a young age, they hang around during the day and this continues into the night time. In the evening time many youth and outreach workers in facilities in the area do not stay after 6 p.m. or 7 p.m., which has become a major problem. They stay until it is time to clock out at 7 p.m. after which young people stand around. This continues until the early hours of the morning and can create other problems for residents in the area. My main concern is that there should be no cutback in the school completion programme. It is an area on which we need to focus and give it as much funding and help as possible.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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There are no votes in the drugs strategy and it is not a major political issue. Would we not be better off with one Minister who deals with the areas of health, education and justice? The Department of Education and Science deals with one aspect, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform deals with another part of it, while the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs deals with another part. Would it not be possible to introduce one agency to deal with all? If the Minister of State were such a Minister, he would not allow the abolition of the school completion programme, which is important.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy's final question is probably the most unusual way to ask for my resignation.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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We could make the Minister of State Minister for it.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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It would be very difficult for the national drugs strategy to fall under the remit of any one Department. We talk about health, rehabilitation and treatment, which is one very clear area. Earlier I answered a question on providing additional recreational and sporting facilities. It is specifically because of its diverse nature that we need somebody co-ordinating it rather than having one specialist Department with a lead role. It is based on a number of very clear and specific pillars, including the Departments of Education and Science and Justice, Equality and Law Reform. I believe we need another Department and another Minister — it need not necessarily be me and if the Deputy wants to get rid of me, that is fine. Other than the key agencies that are delivering specifics in the areas of health, education, etc., it needs an overall co-ordinating role, otherwise, some of the very relevant aspects the Deputy seeks would be overlooked. They would not be seen as relevant and would not be in the pecking order.

Deputy Byrne spoke about centres closing in the evenings, which I have witnessed in certain areas. It has never been the practice, nor will it ever be the case, that every facility will be able to operate at all times and every club and organisation would have full-time paid staff. We need to go back to where we came from, which is the ordinary volunteerism in our community and people being involved with young people in youth clubs. I grew up in an era, as I am sure Deputy Byrne did, in which I did not know a single paid youth worker or sports officer — they did not exist. While we have introduced them and they are great, the whole area of volunteering is still as relevant today and we all have a role to play in that regard. We cannot have our young people constantly looked after and facilities provided without our input as parents. It would be awful to think of sending my children to a football match if I were not prepared to drive them or go and help. Parents have a role to play as volunteers as much as anything else.