Ms Cheryl Kelly:

I am consistently supporting eight women on a one-to-one basis with their crack cocaine use. One of the women I am supporting is pregnant. The majority of them are living in homeless services. Only three have their own homes and two are in domestic violence situations. They are living in pretty poor circumstances. Some of the women I am supporting still have custody of their children and are trying to navigate their crack cocaine use as well as trying to be mothers.

Women on drugs are the most vulnerable in our society. They are often cut off from services that are tailored to men and looking after the needs of men. If we are to continue to support women and children in our community and the Dublin 8 area, we are going to have to do an awful lot more interagency work. I have skills that other people may not have. We need people working together. We need to put money and infrastructure in place so that we as professionals are actually able to do our jobs. You feel like your hands are tied, especially when you are not able to get the funding you want to run a programme, which means you are not able to run that programme. It is really difficult, especially when faced with that consistently, time and again. You are pouring energy and resources into writing research proposals and trying to fight your case. It is very difficult to get the funding. Alongside that you are continuing to support the women.

As Ms Quigley said, this is nuanced work because you are not just supporting women with their crack cocaine use; you are supporting them with their housing issues and with responding to Tusla letters and gaining access to legal aid so that they are represented when they end up going into court, whatever the reason may be. You are supporting them at the courts as well. It is not as though we are just looking at the drug issue. That is not the full issue. You have to look at the person. There needs to be a holistic approach. If people are having issues with their kids, what supports are we able to put into place? What family supports can we use? If a family needs help in the morning, what can we do for the kids when mammy is at home but might not be feeling herself and the kids are running around getting into trouble, setting fire to trees or whatever it may be? That is where it all starts. It starts at home. We need to be able to help the family as a whole, look at the holistic picture and see where we are able to get the supports. That is the only way.