Mr. Paul Perth:

I totally agree about parks and calisthenics and things like that. They are going up all over Tallaght. We believe all our young people should be trained up. A guy we work with has just been trained up in calisthenics. The rationale behind that is we are not going to be on the streets all the time. We will not be in the parks. He trains his peers. It is peer-to-peer education, which is crucial. On language, the Deputy is right. I said in the statement that we use language like "hard to reach young people", "harder to reach young people", "hard to reach workers" and "harder to reach workers". We are going from "at-risk" to "the most at-risk" young people. We have a joke in the team; we work with the most at-risk and somebody will say, "Well, I work the most more at-risk". When do we stop? Young people are young people. We are trying to get away from that language. We are only three years into our project. As we develop, we are trying to get away from "who is the most at risk" and "who are we trying to target."

We brought a middle-class artist out with us and we met two young girls sitting in the park. It was dark. One was reading something on her phone. She got into conversation with the artist. It was about a play. They spoke for ten minutes while I spoke to the other girl. Long story short, when we left the artist said to me, "I cannot believe that she actually knew about that play and was reading it. It is a play that people in Killinarden do not read, usually." That is why I have a problem with "at risk". That girl connected with that artist because she engaged with her in her space. She probably needed that connection. It is probably the only time any adult has ever sat with her in her area and connected with this play. The artist said it does not belong in parks in Killinarden. There is a problem with the language we use. We need to look at it and look at ourselves and how we deliver programmes. Do we need to get people into groups? Can we deliver programmes? We have seen programmes from the Rape Crisis Centre delivered informally, standing at the shops in Killinarden, Jobstown or Fettercairn and different parts of the country. Every approach can be changed and needs to be challenged.