Young people at risk in Dublin's north inner city may be falling through the safety net due to the lack of a co-ordinated approach from agencies who provide services for them, according to a new report.
The Young People at Risk (YPAR) Initiative Strategic Plan calls for the pooling of existing resources, the provision of services at evenings and weekends as appropriate, and maximising community input into future development and use of resources in the community.
Speaking at the launch the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern acknowledged the importance of different agencies working together.
He said in circumstances where an individual family was being visited by numerous different agencies it was essential that those agencies were communicating.
However, he did not feel funding needed to be redirected to support this model.
The report defines a child at risk as someone "aged 0 to 18 years, experiencing severe personal, family, educational and/or social problems which could benefit from outside support".
Joint-chair of YPAR, Joe Lucey, said that the north east inner city has experienced some of the worst effects of deprivation in the last 30 years but the community had responded in many creative ways to this.
He said there was now a real risk that the new developments going on in the area would not benefit local people or the ethnic minorities who had moved into the area.
Professor Peter Evans of the OECD said there was clearly an awareness of the benefits of coordinated services amongst the interested parties in Ireland.
However he said there were a number of problems associated with this including a lack of trust between the communities and the authorities, token involvement of communities in decision-making, and a lack of knowledge and experience in the community on how to deal with the public service.