COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, March 11, 2013

HEADED ITEM No.4d) (i)

Report of Arts, Culture, Gaeilge, Education & Libraries SPC Meeting on 12^th February 2013

  

Members:

Cllr P Cosgrave – Chair

Cllr A M Dermody

Cllr M Duff

Cllr G O’Connell

Cllr E Walsh

Cllr T Delaney

In Attendance

Mayor C King

Apologies

Cllr M Devine

Cllr J Hannon

Official:

Philip Murphy, Director of Service

 Guest:

 Mr Ian Power, SPUNOUT

Item 1        Confirmation of Minutes of Meeting held on 13^th November 2012

The minutes of the meeting of the Committee, which was held on 13^th November 2012, were proposed by Cllr Cosgrave and seconded by Cllr Duff

Item 2        Presentation by SPUNOUT

The Chair Councillor Paddy Cosgrave welcomed Mr Ian Power of SPUNOUT to the meeting.

Mr Power’s presentation focused on: 

• Background of the organisation and its strategic focus
• It is an independent youth lead national charity
• It works with young people aged 16 to 25 years
• Its aim is to promote health and well being in both body and mind
• Through its website it provides an interactive online community
• It had over 1m hits on its website in 2012 with 686K unique users of which >500K were Irish
• It is currently working to address obesity as a new target
• It is lead by five key staff members in a shared leadership model
• An action panel of young people aged 15 to 25 devise and set strategy
• It is funded by a mixture of philanthropic, state, foundation and community investors

Cllr Cosgrave thanked Mr Power for his lively and thought provoking presentation. A discussion ensued during which contributions were made by Cllrs Cosgrave, Dermody, Duff, O’Connell and Walsh with specific reference to the following 

• The need to ensure that a service was targeted at those up to the age of 30
• The need to carefully address issues relating to self harm and suicide
• The manner in which outreach programme to second level schools operates
• How outreach programmes are delivered to community youth groups and local drug task forces
• What actions to address literacy issues are put in place
• Alcohol abuse is an increasing problem that needs to be addressed
• The information supplied with regard to sexuality and sexual health especially for young males and their position in law 

Following the discussion the Committee agreed to request that Mr Power make his presentation to the Council’s Comhairle Na nóg and also committed to making representations in relation to the future funding issues which were raised during the presentation and discussion.

  

Item 3        AOB

Mr Philip Murphy confirmed next meeting date: Tuesday 14^th  May 2013 @ 5.30pm.

The meeting concluded at 6.30pm.