In the latest in a series on Premier the Hon. David Saul's Cabinet, Libby Francis profiles the new Health Minister the Hon. Harry Soares.

Breaking the cycles of repeat offenders, social assistance, and the number of young people committing crimes is what is on the new Health Minister's itinerary of important issues to tackle.

And among those the Hon. Harry Soares intends to work closely with the Island's prison system.

Mr. Soares, who is definitely not new on the Parliamentary block said: "One of the things that is a trait of mine is that I really get involved. I really care.

"I wake up between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. and I think about the things that personally affect me. One of the things that I have come to realise since I have been in this position is that people are quick to say that we have lost a whole generation which disappoints me because young people of today are so much more outstanding than ever before.

"There are good young people who are in vast majority and they have an outstanding scholastic side, and good moral judgment which is far superior than what I remember.

"Conversely, it is also true that the bad ones are "badder'' than what I remember,'' Mr. Soares said.

He added that his real concern was that the "good'' young people often get forgotten about by the deeds of the bad few and "that is what I'd like the public to realise.

"A lot of them are from dysfunctional homes, there is a cycle going on and we need to break it by working with them from an early age.

"I am keen to look at and identify very young children from, four and five-years-old, who are deemed to be at risk and guide them into specific programmes depending on their needs. By doing that we have a chance of breaking the cycle.'' Mr. Soares also said he wanted to curb the number of adults obtaining social assistance and allowances.

"A lot of them aren't able to function 100 percent and I would like to look at trying to make them employable. We need to get them a job and make them independent of social assistance.

"So our responsibility is a lot greater than helping to pay the bills. We are going to have to come up with certain conditions that will allow someone to be eligible for social assistance.

"For example, a person might have to attend a course to upgrade their skills as a precondition to getting help. We might go to an employer and say we need to give this person a chance and we will assist in paying their wage until that employee is 100 percent productive.'' Mr. Soares added that the Department of Health and Social Services needed to look at things differently and do things differently in order to stop the increase in people depending on social assistance.

"We also have to look at the people coming out of prison because the recidivism rate will continue to rise. At this time 75 to 80 percent of inmates in Bermuda's prisons have been there before. We will be looking at trying to break that cycle.

"What we need urgently is a halfway house, a place for inmates to go when they leave prison. I am really concentrating on that. We also need a secure residential home for young offenders.'' Mr. Soares added that more time needed to be spent on the prisons as the whole prison service has been short of staff.

However, he said like most Government ministries and departments "this department does not have enough money to do what we'd like to do but there is no shortage of ideas from the public about what we should be doing.'' THE HON. HARRY SOARES -- He intends to work closely with the Island's prison system.