Last week, together with my Labour colleague, Joe Costello, I held a series of meetings in Dublin north's inner city with community leaders, business owners, educators, service providers and members of An Garda Síochána. As everybody in the House knows, the spotlight is on the north inner city because of gun deaths and the focus on crime. This is a cause of great frustration for the people who live there who are weary of the periodic focus on their community and the analysis and talk relating to it. They were anxious that they now be fully involved in finding a permanent solution to which everybody can buy in.

Two weeks ago, I raised the issue of a joint task force with the Taoiseach. In response to my query, he indicated that this would happen. I have a few questions for the Minister. Where stands the task force? Who will lead it? The latter is one of the issues that was raised again and again with me. It is critical that the local community be fully involved in the design of a solution to all the issues of inequality that prevail in the north inner city. It could be a model for regeneration and a model of hope. However, it can only work on the basis that all of us across the various parties - in or out of government and regardless of the vagaries of politics and how the political winds blow over the next decade - commit to signing a solemn pledge, individually as Members of this House, to implement the blueprint for action outlined by this task force. On behalf of the Government and Fine Gael, will the Minister commit to signing such a pledge for this community, which could become a model for other areas in regeneration, rebuilding and supplanting despair with hope? Will he also answer the questions relating to the timescale and membership of the task force that the Taoiseach agreed to create?

I do not have precise answers in respect of the timeframe but I assure the Deputy that the Taoiseach is taking this very seriously. Within the education portfolio, I am looking at areas where we could support initiatives within the north inner city and also, as the Deputy says, in the context of a wider model to examine areas of concentrated disadvantage to see how we can break that cycle. The concept of working across Departments has come into vogue in the past couple of years. Examples include the Action Plan for Jobs and the action plan for housing. The Deputy is right in that we need to form an approach to dealing with concentrated urban deprivation in particular in a way that is more consistent and breaks away from silos because an individual family deals with all the problems. It does not silo its problems between health, education, the community, the risk of slipping into lives of crime and all the other aspects. The Taoiseach is continuing to work with this and I am sure he will communicate with the Deputy.

The question of whether such an approach can become something we would roll out and create a pledge around is a challenge for this Dáil. One of the things we need to do is have a long-term vision. We are approaching a long-term vision for health and looking to the Oireachtas to have a degree of consensus about that. We want to do the same in terms of long-term funding for the higher education system where there will also be a challenge coming down the track. Climate change is a third issue. There is a large number of major challenges facing this Oireachtas and I agree with the Deputy that this certainly ranks among them. We need to find a more consistent way of ensuring that the resources of the State are deployed in a way that delivers better outcomes in these communities rather than each sitting within its own silo.

Today, we have seen the publication of a report on the health prospects of people suffering from cancer in different parts of our community. The report again raises questions for the Oireachtas as to how it can improve delivery in these areas. While it would be premature for me to say I will sign on the dotted line for a policy approach we have yet to see fully developed, I am fully behind the spirit of what the Deputy is saying. In respect of my responsibilities in education, I would like to see that sort of cross-community approach because a school cannot be just an oasis on its own. Its strength depends on the resources it can bring in from the rest of the community in order to deliver improvements. I look forward to the work of the task force and I will ask the Taoiseach to communicate to the Deputy on the framework and how the Oireachtas will be fully involved.

I welcome the Minister's initial positive view of the all-party pledge in respect of this. The Minister said that this is a challenge for the Dáil. It is more than a challenge. It is imperative that we do not just talk about an area that has been in the public view periodically for decades, but actually commit ourselves to finding a resolution. We can do that. All of us, and I put my hand up, have failed this community. We have failed it because we have not delivered the resources in a consistent, co-ordinated, marshalled and ongoing way that would break the cycle of deprivation that has led not only to elements of crime, but an ongoing lack of participation in proper health statistics. I ask the Minister to ensure that we have a clear timeframe for this task force, that the membership will be set out - he can come back to me on that - that there will be real community buy-in and that we, as an Oireachtas, commit ourselves to this area. Let this be the model area where we will commit over whatever time is required to ensure that we do not revisit the same issues for this community in a decade or two.

I agree with the Deputy's approach. Indeed, our own parliamentary party discussed this challenge last week. I am sure it is replicated in parts of the Deputy's constituency, as it is in parts of mine. Most Deputies experience the same and there is a resolve to see a response in the north inner city, which has particularly acute experience. As a former school principal in the area, the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, knows this better than I do. As we respond to the challenges in this area, we need to develop a model that we can replicate and build upon for other communities. I have often been very impressed by the partnership companies and the way they can innovate in a way Government Departments cannot. We need to find ways of allowing a thousand flowers to bloom in different communities. One of the things I hope to do in the area of education is examine the concept of supporting innovation, particularly in respect of different community challenges.