The Connacht Tribune, Week Ending 15 July

Connacht Tribune Tim Ryan, Oireachtas Correspondent Youth Work Ireland facing closure Youth Work Ireland, Galway's youth counselling service which has been in existence since 2011, is now at risk of closure due to a lack of funding, the Dáil and Seanad were told. Speaking in the Dáil Independent Deputy Catherine Connolly said Galway's youth counselling service is an excellent organisation, with 800 adolescents having come through its door since 2012, 191 of those in 2016. “It provides a service to Tuam, Ballinasloe, Loughrea and Galway city,” she said. “It has struggled, but it has provided an excellent service. It is unique because that young adult age group can walk in the door, so most of the referrals are from families, schools, to a lesser extent from the health service, the gardaí and so on. It provides a unique venue in that young people are going in for other services and can avail of this specialist service. They are simply asking for a stable source of funding to enable this work to continue.” Fianna Fáil Deputy Anne Rabitte said since 2011, the group has managed to help 800 families, but now they face the closing of their doors. “It would cost €35,000 to run this service on an annual basis. If that figure is divided by the number of children who are availing of it, it works out at €175 of an investment per child over a 12 week period. These children are knocking on the door asking for help.” Fine Gael Deputy Hildegarde Naughton said this is a service which does not require a referral from a doctor. “Teenagers and children as young as 12 can walk in and speak to a qualified counsellor at their ease in a very informal setting,” she said. “There is huge benefit from that. The funding that would be required to keep this service going is minimal in the grand scheme of things.” Sinn Féin Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh told the Upper House that the service was set up to meet the needs of young people who could not access counselling services in Galway due to cost, location and issues relating to counsellors' qualifications. “The current crisis is such that it cannot continue to provide services without a stable source of funding and has had to agree that it will need to close and not reopen in September unless the funding issue is addressed,” he said. “This is an urgent issue.” He said he hoped the Leader could raise it with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and her office to ascertain whether anything can be done to both retain the service and to extend it to areas such as Gort, Clifden and Carna, which have been asking for this service to be brought into those areas. Replying in the Dáil, Minister of State Jim Daly said funding for the service had originally been provided for a three year period by St. Vincent De Paul, as well as other sources such as Electric Aid, local schools, etc. “This time-limited funding stream ceased last year,” he said. “The local HSE resource office for suicide prevention provided €15,000 to ensure continuity of this service. The executive has recently committed to providing the same amount for 2017, in addition to a smaller funding contribution to the group from Tusla. I understand that the HSE is reviewing the position of the group, including the concerns raised by the Deputies. I am not aware the service has made any funding application to the HSE under Section 39 or the lottery funding, which are the two avenues whereby it can apply to the HSE” Galway people led the way on recycling Galway local authority waste management services was the second last to be privatised, Independent Deputy Catherine Connolly told a Dáil debate on waste management. A particular union played a very bad role in that process, she said. “We showed what was possible,” she said. “I will rephrase that - the people of Galway showed politicians and, more importantly, management what was possible. They led us by the nose. When we were told by engineers, whose reports cost millions of euros, that we could not achieve zero waste and that we could only get to 45% recycling, we reached 70% recycling on a shoestring budget on a pilot project. On an ongoing basis, we diverted 56% from landfill on a shoestring budget. The people said: ‘We are not passive consumers, we are not people to be told, we will tell you, we want to be part of society, we know how important it is’, and they led the way. What happened? The service was privatised under Government policy.” She said the Minister responsible, Denis Naughten, should “stop insulting us, telling us about fake news, stating that the market is the only way forward and indicating that he is being forced to regulate a market that, of its nature, cannot be regulated.” Some services are essential, said Deputy Connolly. “They are essential for any civilised, democratic society. We should not seek to divide and conquer on these issues and we should not seek to distinguish the poor people and those who need incontinence sheets from those who do not. This is an essential service. If the Minister does not accept that, perhaps he might consider what was done in Galway, a matter to which I have referred ad nauseam in this House since I was elected.” Minister of State Seán Kyne told the House that twelve months ago, there was a plan to introduce pay-by-weight per kilogram as the only pricing model which would be available to customers of household waste collection. This caused some concern as it appeared that certain collectors were using the new initiative as an opportunity to increase prices and the Government made a decision not to introduce pay-by-weight at that time. “A voluntary agreement was reached with waste operators to hold the current prices and plans for 12 months,” he said. “The potential introduction of pay-by-weight was to be reviewed to inform decisions in regard to the charging arrangements beyond 1 July 2017.” The Government has decided to proceed with a new framework that will give waste collectors the flexibility to continue to offer, or to introduce, a range of incentivised pricing options which encourage householders to reduce and separate their waste while choosing the service price offering that best suits their circumstances and allows them to manage their costs, he said. These options include elements or combinations of per lift, per kilogramme, weight bands, weight allowances and standing charges. This offers the widest choice to consumers to help them manage their costs. “Approximately half of households are already on these types of offerings, so the public is familiar with these options,” he added. An annual support of €75 will be introduced for persons with lifelong or long-term medical incontinence, he siad. This will help people meet the average annual cost of disposal of incontinence products. The details and arrangements of this support will be finalised later this year after further consultation with the stakeholder groups. .

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