Ms Grace Hill:

I will come in on the point the Chairman made about the pandemic. We are very aware that Covid-19 did nothing to slow down the flow of drugs at all. Our sources in the Garda tell us that getting drugs in was not a problem. The Chairman also referred to young people hanging around street corners. That is what young people should do. They hang around together and we do not begrudge them that. However, we are hoping that the street work piece I mentioned will help to engage with young people in a more positive way.

I am also pushing through a number of inter-agency groups. There is a need to build more capacity for young people. They need more positive role models within the community. Ms Quigley earlier described the situation that young people are now, unfortunately, looking up to drug pushers because they are the people with the Range Rovers and Canada Goose jackets. We must show young people positive role models and we hope the street work piece will help in that regard.

There has been positive news within the community. Since we launched the research three weeks ago, we have had a number of good responses from the community to say thanks and that it is great to know someone cares and is working in the background. Those messages told us we need to keep going and pushing. We must keep talking about the people who are not trying to destroy communities. We do not want to put people on platforms, by any means, but we want to say we are not going to accept the situation. We must keep going and raising the issue at forums such as this one. It is important to keep the conversation going.