Ms Aoife Carragher:

On the child poverty and well-being unit in the Department of the Taoiseach, we have been invited, we are participants there and we were twice invited to speak. When we were invited to speak to the stakeholders, we played a very short video from the direct voice of children whom we met from our No End in Site investigation. The reason was that we wanted to grind people down until they could understand what it is like to be a child growing up in poverty. We played the video to hear directly from children what it is like to be ashamed going into school because of the dirt on your shoes or your dress and because of the filth you are living in on the site. We wanted people to really understand that when you are dealing with poverty, you can talk about theory and economics but you have to listen to the deep shame some children experience when they are growing up in poverty. I understand that presentation was very well received and we are asking them again and again to go out and listen to these children and not to get too lost in the theory.

Our second presentation was on teenagers at risk. These are a cohort of children we are really worried about because they are not seen as vulnerable because they are engaging in criminal exploitation, doing the drug dealing and we meet them in Oberstown, but we see them as vulnerable.

They are the children who will end up in prison, or worse. We want the Government to recognise them as vulnerable and take steps to address their needs. That is how we have engaged so far.