Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. There was really good information in their presentations. As someone who has worked in addiction services right across Dublin for most my adult life, I hear their pain in some of the stuff they mentioned. I was also on the board of the Clondalkin drugs and alcohol task force for a long time and one of the problems we had was budgetary constraints, which led to us being more reactive than proactive. As much as we tried to fight against that, it led to reactive measures.

One of the things I picked up from the witnesses representing Ballymun is the grooming of young people by criminals. I have seen that in my area. Mr. Greaves said it was anecdotal but it is quite prevalent across all areas of high poverty. Young people are attracted to the flash cars, the money, the new runners, the so-called being a somebody - all that stuff. I notice that the Ballymun local drugs and alcohol task force's report states there has been an increase in the number of young people holding drugs and weapons and getting involved in low-level dealing for very little money and that the task force is seeing the consequences of that with increased coercion and violence. What actions does the task force see that can be put in place to combat this? Would multi-annual funding be part of that solution?