Having chaired an Assembly conference for The Bytes Community Project yesterday in front of a full Senate and representatives of the various political parties, I emerged drained. The worsening economic situation underscores the lack of hope abroad right now with greater numbers of young people facing an even greater uphill climb.
Some of these young people are on the ‘margins’ of society. Many of them are early school leavers. Others are single parents. One young woman was obviously sick with worry over an alleged lack of appropriate care for her autistic child. Many of those present are homeless and unable to get Housing Executive accommodation. Another young man had spent four years in gaol. Scores of these young people are under the watchful eye of The Bytes Project across Northern Ireland, but that organisation is concerned about its core funding. For them there is no way out except clinging to this body of committed people propping up a fragmented, fractured community where drugs and dependency are problems.
These teenagers and older, feel disconnected from the body politic and they think the world is against them. They cannot understand ‘big politics.’ They live hand to mouth. Giving £60m, in a sweetheart deal, to ‘disgruntled’ prison officers who want to quit their jobs appeared unreal to them. Questioner after questioner quizzed Justice Minister David Ford and other politicians on mental health issues, jobs, homelessness while coming across incredulous at cutbacks in an ever diminishing world which they inhabit.
Needless to say the politicians cannot ‘magic’ money. There was a rawness when the question of suicide surfaced. The gathering heard talk of ‘an epidemic’ of self harm and self inflicted death in the Colin area of Poleglass.
What was very evident was the lack of cross department awareness among many of the politicians. This vagueness was none clearer than in the case of Justice Minister David Ford who seemed completely at sea about a 25% cut in funding in one education scheme. The Minister showed no awareness of any ‘joined up government’ at the Executive table. Attention was drawn to the autonomous nature of each department and each minister, having no necessary working knowledge of another Department.
This led me to reach one conclusion. Why is there not more cross fertilisation and interaction among committees particularly where there are areas of common interest, as in Justice, DEL, DSD and Education?
Inter departmental committee meetings are quite rare. A number of these took place around the time of the NIW crisis when two committees hooked up in the Senate.
All of this brings me back to one other central theme. Why have The Assembly and Executive an image problem? So many ordinary people want to feel reassured. They simply do not believe politicians are doing enough for them. This should not be misconstrued to lead us to conclude that people are against devolution. Au contraire, every Assembly roadshow I do inevitably underscores universal support for devolution. The electorate loves the idea of having local politicians and yet one senses this disconnect. This is a challenge to all politicians.
5 Comments
Eamonn, You quickly focused on the plight of young people in these circumstances. Bytes, thanks to a truly wonderful and dedicated team, has been successful in helping young people who are typically lacking in educational qualifications and self esteem to rediscover their true capabilities. Their lives are transformed in ways which lead them to constructive engagement in their communities, and, in many instances into training and employment. To succeed in this way, means leaders having to cope with significant issues including drugs and alcohol abuse, behavioural problems, and many other social and health-related issues. The ability to refocus a young person’s life is a triumph which not only affects the young person, but has considerable benefits for the community in terms of economic and social gains.
Bytes has been endorsed by a range of agencies, including a highly commendatory report by the Education and Training Inspectorate. It simply does not make any sort of sense to have work of this calibre arbitrarily cut back by a reduction of 25% in its grant. The literally thousands of young people who benefit from the work of Bytes deserve better than this. If cuts have to be made, then let there be a recognition of where successful work is being done and an avoidance of across-the-board reductions with no apparent recognition of high quality endeavour.
Thank you very much for your thoughts, as above, they are much appreciated. We need all the support we can muster from those who influence our politicians and who can help them to understand the importance of their decisions having beneficial effects. They must judge where resources are most needed and can be most beneficially applied, and act accordingly.