8. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the action taken by his Department to monitor the progress of young people who leave the youth diversion programme after their supervision period ends; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36372/25]

Sentiment score: 0.24

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?

Sentiment score: -0.01

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?

Sentiment score: -0.05