Fifteen or 20 years ago, cinemas as places of mass entertainment appeared to be doomed to extinction by the spread of cable television and video. Now they are thriving again, reinvented as "multiplexes", incorporating a range of flexible auditoriums which cater for diverse audiences according to demand.
Two years ago Mr Dermot Stokes, the national co-ordinator of Youthreach, which provides courses for early school-leaving teenagers, had the idea of adapting the multiplex idea to provide a range of education, training, youth and childcare services in one building in deprived areas.
He noted a European Social Fund evaluation of early school leaver provision which stressed the unattractive environment of many Youthreach projects, situated in disused factories and other unsightly places, and the heavy outlay on rent which, otherwise invested, could provide purpose-built facilities of permanent benefit to local communities.
He also saw the plethora of initiatives, funded by a wide range of Government departments and EU funding mechanisms, to combat social and educational exclusion, many of them operating in isolation from, and sometimes in competition with, each other.
He then wrote a paper, which he circulated to senior Department of Education officials and ministerial advisers, proposing the establishment of a number of "community-based learning and information multiplexes" in disadvantaged areas. He cited Tallaght, where Youthreach had struggled to find suitable premises, as an example.
These multiplexes could be used not only for early school leavers, but also for adult education and literacy programmes, return to work schemes, community development and arts activities, youth services, local information services, sports, social welfare and health board services and exhibitions.
They should include certain core elements, including a creche, a large industry-standard kitchen and an up-to-date information and communications technology facility.
There should be a strong element of local involvement in their management and they should operate both during the day and in the evening.
Local businesses should also be involved, where possible, both in resourcing and using the multiplex, for example for training staff in computers.
The multiplex idea struck a chord in the Government. Both the Taoiseach and the Minister for Education, Mr Martin, were reported to be impressed.
In last November's budget, Mr Martin obtained £1 million as "seed" funding to test the idea. Three VECs - City of Dublin, Co Dublin and Cork City - were asked to submit proposals for specific disadvantaged areas.
So far only City of Dublin has come up with a suitable site: a former Dominican convent in Cabra. One of the problems is that "green field" sites - which Mr Dermot Stokes felt would be necessary in some deprived suburban areas - are extremely difficult to come by because of the sharp rise in the cost of building land.
However, embryonic projects, not funded by the Department's "seed" funding, have already emerged in two other areas, in Co Cork and Meath.
In Mallow, the Youthreach co-ordinator and the VEC persuaded a local credit union to buy an unused factory on the town's outskirts and to lease it back to the VEC with an eventual option to buy.
It now houses Youthreach, the EU-funded Youthstart "second chance" education project, and a community-oriented Bank of Ireland-funded computer facility.
In Navan, the originator is once again Youthreach and the VEC in co-operation with a widely representative local committee, and the core activity is a cafe again funded by the Youthstart programme.
Mr Stokes sees such a cafe, with a large kitchen and an Internet facility, as an obvious starting point for a multiplex, since it would cover several needs: as a community facility; as a provider of training in catering and computers, both sectors with a growing demand for jobs; and as a concrete way of improving awareness of the importance of nutrition in deprived areas.
He sees a creche as another key element, both as a prerequisite for women wanting to return to education or training, and as a means of providing childcare training.
As part of its increasing emphasis on "lifelong learning", the Department of Education has included funding for multiplexes in its bid for National Development Plan funding.