Ms Anastasia Crickley:

I thank Deputy Gannon for his questions. I would like to acknowledge the people in the north inner city, in particular, with whom I have worked with for many years. In spite of the cuts of 2008, they have been able to demonstrate the resilience of communities. The Deputy asked whether we need to go beyond. I named the Departments of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and Rural and Community Development as needing to support and fund resilience in communities. Communities are resilient. They were gutted from 2008 but they have survived. They are resilient. They can do a variety of things and, with structured and flexible funding, they can be resourced to do those things. However, it needs to be co-ordinated and it needs to happen immediately. There is a medium-term approach, which is about continuing to support communities in a flexible way that acknowledges the need for autonomous local community development. It is not about how many people you can get sitting on seats like the ones we are on and calling that community development.

It is about something different entirely. Yes, we need a whole-of-state approach, a co-ordinated approach. I salute some of the things the Ministers responsible do when their backs are to the wall. Moreover, I salute the officials, who have tried very hard when their backs have been to the wall, but it is not enough. What they are trying to do needs to be reflected more in the language and the initiatives taking place across the Government. We in the community sector, in the community forum, asked months ago for such an initiative, led by the Department of the Taoiseach. I feel there is a need for a co-ordinated approach but it needs to be immediately visible in the language used by all members' colleagues, very visible and very clear, and right throughout.

As someone who has worked against racism and who was chair of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, which the Government in its wisdom decided in 2008 was not needed any more, I believe that the new action plan on racism needs to be published immediately. We need to acknowledge, not just in the context of the immediate situation but also in the context of systemic racism, which builds on what we have been discussing, that systemic racism is in-built in these Houses, the same as everywhere else. That is not like saying these Houses are different from anywhere else.

There are things that can be done. It is about education. It is about awareness raising. It is about a variety of things that colleagues around this table and others watching these proceedings are well able to put together with the resources and the time they have. It is not about robbing Peter to pay Paul, putting the resources into one thing and take it from something else, which generates, correctly, kickback from communities that are left without things.

Finally, as I said, we need to be very careful not to divide people in the process of this. I do not think we have to do so. There is an inevitable division at the moment but it can be addressed. I thank Deputy Gannon for his question.