Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses very much for all their presentations. Sometimes committee meetings can be boring and repetitive. Listening to the witnesses, however, it is obvious that there is joined-up thinking between all the organisations and that things are moving forward.

I was interested to hear Senator O'Hara speak about thematic inspections, but that has been covered.

Ms Brady spoke about the Probation Service. On one of our visits, I spoke to a probation officer who was very outgoing and forward about what was happening. It goes back to what would be the alternatives to prison and what alternatives would be offered. Ms Brady mentioned people going in and being back out in five days, with no backup and anything else. There also seems to be a lack of support within the probation services. Has anybody looked into aftercare, for example?

There was also mention of mental health and other issues. I was a member of the autism committee, and one or two of the members will be aware that we met people from the Scottish Parliament. They had a full pathway, including wraparound services, for people suffering with mental health and autism, which we do not have here. We class it as dual diagnosis, but it is a weak policy.

The following is more of an observation. I congratulate every one of the witnesses. I know the work Ms Anne Costello does. Ms Sweeney has always been brutally honest. I love listening to the experts. They are the experts because they have the lived experience. They are the ones who have gone through the cracks and who know how to fill them. Well done to the witnesses in that regard. It is wonderful to see Barnardos come on board because this is about joined-up thinking. We often say, especially in the context of the health services, that people work in silos and are sectioned off. Then you see other communities come together, and when you pool your resources together, you will get better results. As regards Mr. McDonagh and the mediation service, that is a game-changer. It is unbelievable. I hope he has more success and I was delighted when he mentioned that it is a 32-county initiative because we are just the one island, believe it or not. I have seen that as well with the Middletown centre when it comes to autism services. It is based up in Armagh but covers the Thirty-two Counties.

It is a very positive thing we are listening to here. As I said, as a committee, it is still a great opportunity if we can assist the witnesses in anything to move things forward. I have met most of them before and I commend them on the work they are doing. The experiences we have had on the visits have been really heartwarming and, judging from the people I spoke to, it is game-changing. I remember speaking to one fella who said, "When I am out of here, I am going to have my driver licence and all my tickets." He said, "I am ready to get to work." That shows what can happen within the system if it is tweaked and improved.

I agree with one of the speakers who talked about the training and upskilling. That has to happen all the time. It has to evolve. It is about building trust but it is like everything in that it is about understanding what you are dealing with first. If you do not understand that when you are going in, you will be at a loss and there will be conflict.

I go back to Ms Sweeney's story about the effects of motherhood and children and so on and that situation where the kids were at school. That situation, regardless of what she did, is totally wrong. It is totally inhumane to do that to anybody. I would like to address that.

Was it Ms Anne Costello or Ms Brady who spoke about meeting with the Circuit Court and High Court judges and so on? That is huge as well because they are so busy that they just do not know what is going on. It is all down to sitting down together, talking about it and explaining it. In our job, we always say there is no such thing as a stupid question but the problem is that you might get a stupid answer. That is when you have to go back and ask again.

I have really enjoyed listening to the witnesses. These are all positive things that are happening, and if we can support them in any way at all, they should just ask us.