Ms Marie Brown:

We have also worked with our local magistrate. We have a special domestic violence listing and we are now working towards the development of a specialist domestic violence court. This is why our location is the best one for the centre. As a result of the fact that we have developed so much and we have the treatment centre with inter-agency involvement already in place - the investment in this regard was £4 million and the project has just been completed - the justice centre will be the front-line service. This will enable those on the front line to come up to speed. Any agency can refer people on to any or all of the facilities we have managed to put in place. We just received £500,000 from the lottery in order to examine the position with regard to anti-social behaviour and acting out among ten to 18 year olds. That anti-social behaviour stems from children living with violence and also from the fact that there is a perception about an acceptable level of violence in the street. These children know nothing else. We are really starting to look at helping them cope with some of the violence with which they have grown up. We are also examining different ways of approaching how they behave and considering other anti-violence work.

The treatment centre will be completed in June and will open in September. We are going to open it as part of changing the culture in Derry because domestic and other violence have been a large part of our culture. They were present before the Troubles and they certainly flourished during the latter. They could flourish again if we do not take action now. I would love the members of the committee to visit the centre while Derry is UK City of Culture.