Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Vice Chair. As always, these interactions help to bring people together so that they can have conversations with people they may not have met for the past couple of years despite the fact that they work in the same area. We hear that quite a bit. Two things strike me. One is expanding on some of the previous points around the things that cause anxiety. There is the intersectionality, that element that Mr. Duffy spoke about earlier. We have come out of Covid-19, we are launched into the middle of a war and there is uncertainty about climate and the future for young people. There is an awful lot going on in young people's lives that I certainly hear about. As a Green Party member I certainly hear about the climate issue. All of us are aware that sense of security has been taken from under people. I see it with the young people I know. It is not just one issue, it is the fact that you never know what is around the corner. I do not think that it has to do with one issue or another, it is just the complete lack of security now in people's lives and things are moving so fast. That inevitably is going to bring more challenges. Where people may have felt we had come out of Covid-19 and will deal with the consequences, we will probably see more challenges going forward. Will the witnesses share any thoughts they have on that?

The other thing is, from the point of view of our work, at the end of these processes we come up with a set of recommendations based on witnesses' testimonies. It seems quite clear that recommendations about a systematic approach or process that works everywhere is what is needed, and that it is not about an individual who is overworked saying they must phone Jigsaw to see how they can work together. Do the witnesses have recommendations that would work for each of them? Should it be something outside of them that would pull everything together?