"When a young person becomes homeless it is the local social work team which should intervene, often with the advantage of some knowledge of the affected family and circumstances."
So said the Report Of The Forum On Youth Homelessness in its first report, published last year. It said young people who were not receiving help locally were drawn into the city centre to get assistance.
There, they met other more "street-wise" people which "increased their risk of being enticed into drug use, prostitution and other criminal activities".
Although this has been pointed out in numerous reports since the mid-1990s "nothing has changed really", according to Ms Aileen O'Donoghue, manager of the Clondalkin Partnership.
Because of the break-up of the Eastern Health Board (EHB) into three area health boards, services are being reviewed. "From what we can see, though, the tendency remains one of locating services in the city centre, which is an approach we would oppose," says Ms O'Donoghue.
According to figures from the former EHB and the three area boards, the majority of young people who present as homeless to the emergency Homeless Persons Unit, have come from such suburbs as Clondalkin, Ronanstown, Blanchardstown and Tallaght.
As a significant problem in the suburbs, youth homelessness is a relatively recent phenomenon, according to Mr Eddie Darcy, co-ordinator of Ronanstown Youth Services.
"Unemployment and serious economic and social problems have long been a feature of life here, but it is only since drug abuse has become a serious problem that homelessness has been such an issue for young people," he says.
Heroin abuse may be more prevalent because social problems are more prevalent, but drug abuse has enormously exacerbated such social problems as unemployment, early school-leaving, marriage and relationship breakdown and domestic violence.
The key to preventing young homelessness, according to an internal Eastern Regional Health Authority report on the crisis intervention services, seen by The Irish Times, should be strategies to "identify and intervene with children at risk of homelessness and other risks, and through a case-managed multi-disciplinary process, prevent homelessness and support them and their families."
The well-known under-staffing in the social services is the main reason that child support services are focused on (younger) child-protection rather than on work with young adolescents.
Once homeless, says Mr Darcy, many are initially reluctant to move into town, choosing instead to either sleep rough in the area, stay with friends until the welcome runs out or to sleep in abandoned cars.
However, in the end, almost half are drawn into the city centre, according to the 1999 study, Youth Homelessness in Clondalkin.
And little wonder: all 45 emergency beds for young people are in the city centre; the emergency Homeless Persons Unit is in the city centre and social welfare payments are made at the office in Charles Street, in the city centre.
The three area health boards say plans are already well advanced towards opening emergency beds in their own catchment areas, though many question whether the boards will be able to recruit enough staff to enable them to start receiving children.
Though Ms O'Donoghue welcomes the moves, she sees these as long-term projects. She would like to see an immediate increase in funding and personnel deployed locally.
"It would be invaluable to have a daily outreach service, a comprehensive mediation service [between young homeless and their families]. These are the kinds of things that could be put in place quite quickly," she says.
"Then at least, even if they are homeless, there are people keeping an eye on them, tracking them and knowing what they need. In the city centre, they are anonymous faces with no one, in the end, caring about them as individuals."