Mr. Jim Doherty:

In the context of the kinds of approaches I previously mentioned, psychological approaches are more likely to yield shorter-term results. Measurable improvements to individuals, therefore, can potentially be achieved within the lifespan of a Government. The broader sociological approaches where you are trying to create better communities and better environments for people to grow and flourish tend to be much longer term.

To use an example from my own work, I have undertaken a lot of research which shows that one of the strongest protective factors against drug and alcohol use for children is staying in school longer. School is often a great source of stability, safety, warmth and, sometimes, nutrition for children in the areas we move in. Keeping children in school longer protects them more than a lot of other things we do. We work locally to try to facilitate children with learning difficulties to stay in school. That is not work, however, of which I may ever see the fruit. If we make an intervention with a six- or seven-year-old, it is extraordinarily difficult for me to measure the impact it might have on that person when he or she is 21. It is almost impossible and very hard for everyone in this room. It is, therefore, difficult to make strong cases for allocation of scarce Government resources towards such interventions. Despite this, those interventions are likely to be the ones that ultimately will have the greatest impact of all because if we keep one person out of Mountjoy Prison, we save the State multiples of everything that we spend on six- and seven-year-olds.

When taking into account people’s political perspectives, the limited time of governments, policies and Ministers, etc., it is difficult to make those arguments. Even as a task force co-ordinator, it is difficult to make those arguments to funders. It is, however, the area where we effect long-lasting change by improving people's lives and keeping them in education. When they stay and do better in education, they will have more job opportunities and broader horizons for their own lives, which will lead them to function better within their families and all these kinds of things. It all feds in but I am not sure it is something that can be measured on an Excel spreadsheet in the next 18 months.

We need a deeper, more analytical and more strategic view about what it is we are trying to achieve for individuals and what success looks like for that individual. For a child who was refusing to go to school but is now going to school again, we need to look at the impact that might have down the line on that child's life chances. There is plenty of sociological research in this regard. It should not be impossible for us to calculate that and weight our efforts towards work like that. As Ms Bairéad said, there will be another drug next year to which we will react. There will be another type of addiction and we will react to that also. Ultimately, however, we have to try to stop the conveyor belt of children needing those drugs.