Ms Fiona Murray:

Absolutely. The service we provide to Oberstown is that we provide advocacy support to all young persons in Oberstown because they are in the care of the State. It is slightly different from our commitments with Tusla. These young people often go straight back home into their local communities and while they may have some supportive parental figures for them, there is that vulnerability as to what the community issues present for them.

For young people leaving Oberstown who are in the care of Tusla, what we do as advocates is advocate to the social work department responsible as to whether it is advisable that this young person is going back into that community given what they will face, and whether it should be looked at. Obviously, we do not want young people moving placements because that is a whole other issue, but we might say some alternative may have to be sought for the young person because we need to listen to what they are saying are their vulnerabilities. They will have been drug free for the previous year and a half and we have to make sure that we do our maximum to make sure that they remain drug free.