The Government could save up to 75 per cent of welfare contributions over 18 years if it supported an educational project involving young mothers in the west, according to the Galway Youth Federation.
The Young Mothers in Education project in Galway city has been so successful that it represents a long-term investment, the federation states. It has compared the project's socio-economic benefits to total dependence on the social welfare system, at a time when the project's future is in doubt.
The educational initiative was set up by the Galway Youth Federation (GYF) on a part-time basis in 1999 at the request of a number of community groups in the city. It enables young pregnant women and mothers - many of whom are not from the city itself but from the western region - to remain in, or to return to, second-level education, and to continue with third-level education or training. The project is now full-time and involves 50 mothers from different backgrounds, some of whom are still in relationships or who are married - but all of whom would have been under pressure to drop out of the educational system when they became pregnant.
"Educate a man and you educate a person, educate a mother and you educate a family," is how its backers, including project leader Ms Eleanor Clancy, describe its success. Its main funding has come from Galway City Partnership, and it is supported by the Galway City and County Childcare Committee, City of Galway Vocational Education Committee, the Department of Social and Family Affairs, the Western Health Board and the GYF.
However, the city partnership can only fund pilot projects, and the programme has now been established as a full-time initiative. The GYF has applied two years in a row for core funding of €100,000 - comprising €2,000 annually per participant - from the Department of Education and Science, but has received no positive response so far. To date, it has drawn indirect funding from the Department through the teen parent programme run at University College Hospital, Galway.
Ms Pamela Groarke (20), from Galway city, sat the Leaving Certificate when her baby was just over a month old. She has just completed NUI Galway's access course, and hopes to study forensic psychology.
"I couldn't have done all that without support from the project," she says.
Ms Therese O'Connor (20), from Galway, and Ms Patricia Kerrigan (22), from Westport, Co Mayo, agree on the project's merits. Ms O'Connor, who is mother of a three-year old boy, has already finished the first year of a four-year nursing degree at NUI, Galway. Ms Kerrigan, who wants to be a Montessori teacher, said the programme had given her the confidence to continue with her education at a very challenging time in her life.