Ms Niamh McDonald:

From the work of the FRO in supporting communities on how to respond, in training community workers and family resource workers and so on, we find it is important to involve community leaders. It is about who is delivering the information. Trusted people must deliver it. Ballymun For All, East Wall for All and Drimnagh for All are fantastic. Community leaders should have the facts but the facts-based approach does not always work. We also must understand how the far right is manipulating people right now. It is adding issues such as sexual assault, sexual violence, the attempted abduction of children and so on to the conversation. Its proponents keep increasing and heightening that to increase mobilisations. We find how communities and community leaders are approached is important. It is not a facts-based approach, but rather a values-based approach that is needed. What do we want from our communities? The majority of our communities are welcoming, good spaces, but we need to remind people of that. I use the analogy of a football pitch. Members of the far right are on their football pitch kicking around their lies, misinformation and rumours of criminality. We should be on our own football pitch with our backs to them. We have our values and what we hold dear in our communities. We acknowledge the problems but bring a solutions-based focus. I do not want to say that a leaflet from the Government would be a bad idea, but it is important to consider how it is delivered, who is delivering it and what the message is. It is important to recognise that we are in a different space or realm we have not been in previously. It is important that any Government or State approach is cognisant of what the message is, who it is going to and how it is worded.