Ms Fiona Kearney:

On the building safer communities programme in Cherry Orchard, it is not complicated; it is as simple as the rest of the stuff. It is a case management model based on the needs of the person who is presenting. That is exactly how we do our intensive family support work. It is very vulnerable families who Dublin City Council often cannot engage with, or it is not managing. The council would say that the families will not engage with it, which is sometimes the case because they are fearful of the engagement at times. What we have done a new pilot, and it has been very successful. There is actually a kinship care arrangement in one of the families involved as well. It is about going out and meeting families. There might be a housing issue - there usually is a housing issue - or there is often an antisocial behaviour issue or a rent arrears issue. We do all of the things that we do with all families. We sit down and ask what is going on and how we can practically help with that. The big difference with this is that we have the local authority on board so, at a systems level, it is willing to be flexible. That means we have identified with the local authority a number of families where the children have gone into care and the mam might be in a house and does not feel safe there, or she is in the community and wants to move somewhere else. That is a long, protracted process, but we do it quite quickly. The council would say there is a benefit because it is getting a house back that might have more rooms, and the mother feels safer. There was another domestic violence case where we wanted apartment accommodation, but we could move quicker.

I will outline how that relates to all this work, and I am really interested in Senator Ruane's piece around how it is not every family. In 90% of the families we work with where there is parental addiction, we are working mostly with mothers in their home. Those mothers are caring for their children - rightly so - and they are doing a phenomenal job against all the odds, facing poverty, stigma, fear, violence and all of these issues. For the majority of the families, it is an outreach model and it is in their homes. It involves practical supports, such as food poverty and fuel poverty support. It is support to get to addiction services and mental health services, but it is also very practical support for their children. It provides one-to-one spaces for those children so that they can be validated because it is challenging. Most children want to live at home, however. That is usually the experience. They want to stay at home.

There are then a number of families where grannies or aunties step in. However, what I would say about kinship care arrangements is that they need to be movable and fluid because it does not last. That is why they are so valuable. If mammy goes and gets access to treatment, or she is in a better position or something changes with her partner or something like that, then it is okay for her children to live at home. That is the value of kinship care because it moves much quicker. Then, there are a tiny number who do need State care. The vast majority are at home, however, and I would say the vast majority are at home with their mothers. That does not mean that their granny or auntie and all those people are not wrapped around that families because they usually are as well. They are the greatest eyes around their family in supporting them. I do not know if that answers the questions.