If the power of the mind helped John Burke to top Mt Everest, can students use it to reach peak potential? writes Trish Flanagan.

The ReachOut Ireland/ Irish Examiner survey showed there isn’t a ‘shared understanding’ around mental health amongst our teenagers and we should be resourcing young people to support friends, writes Claire O’Sullivan as she analyses the findings.

The National Youth Council of Ireland has called for a €30 million package to tackle the high rate of youth unemployment after EU figures showed almost a fifth of young Irish people are not in education, work or training.

Bandon is abloom — from today the town’s main street will be festooned with hanging baskets and window boxes full of summer blossoms.

A battle for the patronage of a primary school planned for one of Cork’s largest towns has kicked off.

I am an LCA student in Youthreach Knocknaheeny and I am writing about homelessness in Cork. My class and I are concerned about people living rough: this year, 500 families have become homeless in Ireland. Many more have to stay with friends, family, and in squats, due to the housing crisis and rising rents. People deserve better.

Colm Collins and Ephie Fitzgerald are putting shape and purpose on Clare’s football ambitions. An interesting test awaits tonight.

There has been a significant rise in the number of heroin users in the last five years with approximately 500 heroin users in Cork now and this is contributing to homelessness, crime and death.

Mallow Credit Union has written off the full value of a controversial lease it signed with Co Cork VEC, which is now being probed by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

The former County Cork VEC has lost an employment case related to its controversial decision to open a creche which is the subject of a departmental probe.

A former Youthreach worker has failed in his effort to bring a claim of unfair dismissal against the Cork Education and Training Board after an Employment Appeals Tribunal ruled his claim had been lodged too late.

FOLLOWING two years of denials, the remnants of County Cork VEC has finally had to accept its house was not in order. While managing its €100m annual budget, it failed to keep proper accounts and, because of these shortcomings, it underpaid it taxes.

A Youthreach manager spared jail because he admitted to stealing €40,000 is believed to have defrauded his centre of at least five times that amount.

A Kildare youth worker who stole €40,000 from his employers over a six-year period has been spared jail because he "helped gardaí investigate himself".

Mallow Credit Union has refused to clarify how a property asset was recorded in its accounts at being worth 63 times its actual value to the institution.

Child welfare is being compromised at a creche County Cork VEC broke procurement rules to build.

A €1m VEC creche that was supposed to facilitate a five-fold increase in affordable places is losing money and catering for the same number of preschool children than when it was based in a smaller unit next door.

The State’s spending watchdog has said a special scrutiny report on the operation of County Cork VEC appears inevitable given the volume of complaints arising from the organisation.

County Cork VEC spent almost €50,000 responding to reports that it had lost more than €100,000 due to mismanagement at a Youthreach centre.

County Cork VEC has accepted there were problems with unauthorised leases at Mallow Youthreach but at the last minute voted to deliver a report on the matter behind closed doors.

Fresh details have emerged of the costs of unapproved lending County Cork VEC arranged to fund a budget shortfall at a childcare centre.

A counter-productive hike to the pupil-teacher ratio will lead to further inequalities, says Gerard Craughwell

County Cork VEC has voted to hire outside legal advisers to tell if any of its members or staff were defamed by news reports on waste and mismanagement in operations under its control.

CCVEC will no longer be able to avoid giving answers, writes investigative correspondent Conor Ryan

The flagship boat for a €150,000-a-year Youthreach project has been locked in a boatyard since 2007, writes Investigative Correspondent Conor Ryan

The National Youth Council of Ireland is disappointed with the announcements in today's Budget for education, training and support for young people.

ALL schools could have access to the buying power and other expertise of the education boards that will replace VECs from next year.

IN spite of changes to entry rules which have boosted applications for free part-time courses for the unemployed, almost 2,000 places are yet to be filled.

WORLD famous authors, with more than 50 million sales to their names, have joined forces with Limerick city students to produce a unique literacy and enterprise project.

Third level fees are set to rise to €2,000 for students, many of whom will be unable to pay or will be put off from continuing their studies as a result of the rate.

ADOLESCENTS cannot be “inoculated” from risky behaviour such as taking drugs and drinking alcohol, a conference has heard.

SUPPORT services for schools, colleges and education centres working with low-skilled students could come under pressure as Vocational Education Committees (VECs) have been told to cut non-teaching staff by up to 10% by the end of 2012.

A SAMPLE study has shown that some young people are not satisfied with the role of the Gardaí in their community and in some cases failed to report crimes including assaults because they felt the force could not help.

A MAN employed as a bus driver by a youth group in Cork is a convicted rapist, a court heard yesterday.

THE Ballincollig Youthreach centre has more people trying to get in than are already learning for the first time in director Eric McNally’s six years of working there.

THE Youthreach system, which offers second-chance education to early school leavers, is in crisis as most centres have at least one person is waiting for a place for every four students, their managers have claimed.

THE work of a Cork programme for early school leavers received high praise at an event recognising the achievements of its students who completed various exams this year.

An expectant teenage mother has received a two-year suspended sentence after she was one of a 'group of thugs' that set upon a man and an off-duty garda who had come to the aid of a theft victim.

The Government’s system of priorities must be seriously questioned when it continues to target the weaker sections of the community. Today the Dáil will be discussing a Fine Gael motion in relation to the cutting of special needs classes.

TEACHING services for disadvantaged people are to be disproportionately affected by cutbacks, an educational leader has warned.

SOCIAL welfare recipients will not get a Christmas bonus payment this year while jobseekers under the age of 20 will have their welfare allowance halved to €100 a week.

PARENTS of students in second-chance education centres believe second-level schools are not equipped to deal with their children’s problems, schools inspectors have revealed.

A jury hearing the trial of a man charged with murdering a Cavan woman by stabbing her to death on her front lawn, has been shown garda video interviews conducted with the accused after the killing.

A GARDA car was petrol-bombed and a business was gutted in one of a series of arson attacks in what was one of the country’s worst Hallowe’en night attacks.