An Leas-Chathaoirleach:

I thank Mr. O'Regan. I refer to the recommendations 12, 15 and possibly others that speak about the importance and the effectiveness of stakeholder engagement in relation to people who use drugs, communities, community projects and families. Community development has also been mentioned. Sometimes what some people in Departments understand to be community development is not what community development is in practice. A lot of the recommendations in the report would really benefit from a community development approach, especially in relation to service provision, social and cultural capital and recovery capital. Does anyone want to speak as to how they see that community engagement being carried out? On that group Dr. Ivers spoke about - that almost unrecognised or unreachable group that is a little bit invisible - sometimes when we look at that community engagement piece, we are looking at community engagement that has already been brought closest to the State in terms of its funding and its arms. It is a gatekeeper in a sense in terms of what actual real community engagement and family engagement are. I would love to know what our witnesses think about what real effective community engagement may look like in some of those recommendations.