Ms Koulla Yiasouma:

Sometimes when parents go to parenting programmes, there is a feeling that is because they are bad parents. The scariest thing I have ever done was bring a baby home. My baby, not just any old baby. I had worked with lifers. I had done work in the Maze Prison. I brought my daughter, my little bundle, home.

I had a husband who was supportive and an extended family who answered the phone at 3 o'clock in the morning when we did not know what to do with her. That is the scariest thing I have ever done. Being a parent is the scariest thing a middle-class woman such as me has ever done; I can only imagine if someone does not have the supports I was privileged enough to have what it would be like. Yes, you may need to engage with other parenting programmes, but we need not to pretend that is because you are a bad parent. It is just because we all need a bit of help. We need to stop judging people and families who struggle and we need to be able to give them the hand they need. That is, again, being very general.

What happens? As I said, some young people, regardless of background, may do horrible things, and Oberstown is there for them. If, however, we had good early intervention and prevention services at every age and stage, we might not have 40 young people in Oberstown today. I say that as somebody just coming into the Republic of Ireland to do some work.