Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for their time and effort and for their opening statements. I was struck by the comment, I think it was from Mr. Mullins, that many people have no home to go to and nobody to welcome them. To follow up on previous questions, it seems clear that we have a system in the Prison Service that does its best. Clearly, it does not always reach the level that everyone would like to see, but it does its best. The difficulty is that many people who have grown up in a chaotic or dysfunctional environment end up in prison. In fairness, Mr. Graham mentioned that experts would say that prison is the destiny that awaits people from his background. That is the problem. When they leave prison they go back into that dysfunctional, for want of a better word, or chaotic lifestyle or community. How do we try to find a solution for that whereby we can resolve that problem? Where is the solution that needs to be plugged in here? If we have a system in which people grow up in environments where there is addiction, crime and so forth in their community, naturally they fall into that. They go into prison, progress is made and then they leave prison and find themselves back in the same situation again. Where do we resolve that?