Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I wish to discuss the need for urgent accommodation for the Priorswood outreach service, Sphere 17. This service provides a wide range of services for young people from Darndale, Bonnybrook and Priorswood areas of Dublin 17, which is one of the most socially disadvantaged parts of the whole country. Last year, the service worked with over 1,250 people between the ages of ten and 21. It is a huge service and, through its programmes, Sphere 17 provides positive and enjoyable ways for young people to spend their time, provides a drop in service where teenagers can play pool and hang out with their friends in an alcohol-free environment throughout the year, and provides young people with opportunities to engage in arts programmes and other initiatives they would otherwise not have.

They do hugely important health promotion work, running alcohol and drug awareness and teen pregnancy programmes. They also undertake mental health initiatives, which are important, particularly for at risk young people, and a wide range of other important initiatives. Through all this, they help to improve young people's self-esteem and confidence in themselves and encourage them to avail of opportunities in school and elsewhere, to believe in themselves and to build a better future. The team covers three areas - Darndale, Priorswood and Bonnybrook.

The team in Priorswood provides an incredible service but the staff are working in incredibly bad physical conditions. They work out of a portakabin, which was only ever intended to be short-term accommodation. It is in a dreadful state, having been run down over the years. It is currently closed because it was broken into yet again. It is a particularly vulnerable building. It is easy to break into and it cannot be used at the moment. The staff are managing to cope with the summer programmes because, apart from today's horrendous weather, they have been lucky with the weather. They have been able to put on initiatives outdoors but that will not be a possibility heading into the winter. They badly need a new purpose built, secure building to replace the portakabin to provide this valuable service.

They have raised €55,000 with great effort and they are seeking €100,000 under the youth cafe capital programme. I wrote to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs about this a number of months ago. I understand the application is being considered but the reason I tabled this matter is to draw her attention to the application again. I appreciate many groups have applied for this funding but there is a particularly urgent need in this area because the present accommodation is in such bad condition and it cannot even be used now because of the recent break-in. This is an urgent issue. This is an excellent organisation with a fantastic track record. The staff will make sure every euro they are given in funding will be well spent and it will enable them to continue to provide a great quality service for young people in the Priorswood area.