Ms Grace Hill:

I wanted to touch on the issue from the perspective of a drugs task force. What Ms Harris said earlier touched me. She said they do not get recognition as youth workers. I feel a bit of an imposter because I am not a youth worker but there is a connection there that is part of the reason I was so passionate about having a street work programme in Tallaght. That was the missing link in the chain for us. There is a considerable amount of youth services but nobody to go out and talk to the kids at the Topshop, at Kiltalown or wherever. Schools are connecting to us and asking us to come in and talk, to introduce ourselves to the young people who they know are going to need us. They are desperate for some connection. There is a real lack of positive role models in the community. It is obvious that a cross-departmental approach is required. These issues touch on health, justice and youth affairs. This committee and its equivalent Department might be blamed but there are surely other Departments that must share the burden. Part of the reason to have a street work programme and provide sufficient youth services is to break down the stigma, as Mr. Perth said.

There are also issues in respect of intergenerational drug use. We do not want young people who cannot get help, or adequate help and support, and who cannot get somebody to come out and talk to them where they are, to go down the same road their parents might have gone down or which their friends are now going down. These issues do not require a youth work approach alone. The response needs to be cross-departmental. That is one thing I would love to see coming out of this committee meeting and the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use. I would love to see suggestions coming from the citizens' assembly that touch on these issues, that try to prevent people from self-medicating and which will put supports in place for young people who feel disconnected and have a need to self-medicate.

I fully support what has been said about recruitment issues and the lack of funding to the sector. Our project is a pilot, which are we are desperately seeking to sustain and develop out. It is needed in every community. There are excellent youth services out there but many of the young people who use substances and engage in drug dealing and drug-related crime will never go into those centres. I understand there are barriers in terms of the UBU stuff. Perhaps those projects do not go far enough. All of these are complex issues that are impacting young people and are challenging for them. We can see the issues through a number of different lenses, including, of course, the prevention of the use of drugs and the provision of support to people who feel a need to self-medicate.