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

I thank Barnardos, whose representatives I spoke to recently at the Joint Sub-Committee on Mental Health. It was a really good engagement which I enjoyed. I have engaged with Focus Ireland in my past work as an addiction and outreach worker and mental health support worker across Dublin. I know both organisations well.

As has been mentioned, much of the cost of living stuff affecting children is outside of their control. Fuel prices going up, electricity, transport, clothes and food are all outside children's control but they are, for want of a better word, victims of this. There is also a poverty of opportunity out there, especially in more disadvantaged communities.

The first question I will ask concerns an area I am doing work in at the moment. We have seen criminals using children for their own selfish needs as drug mules, drug couriers and so on. Have the witnesses experienced this? Children see this as a way out of poverty. I was speaking to a few of them and to a few organisations. They see the flash cars and jackets and the extravagant lifestyles. Have the witnesses noticed this? Any feedback on that would be great.