Ms Mary Cunningham:

I like to use an example. How many people here have ever flashed their lights at somebody because they had seen a Garda car? My daughter did it and the next thing the Garda car came up behind her and she was referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions for obstructing the police in the line of duty. She is a schoolteacher, so you can imagine what that might mean for her. I always use that as an example to show that people need to know what the story behind something like that is and to use absolute discretion. The nature of youth work particularly, where the workers should believe in the potential of everybody, is well placed. There are lots of people who did things when they were younger and the vast majority grow out of it. That was not what I was saying at all.