Mr. Paul Reid:

I will make a few comments and then defer to some of my colleagues who are practitioners in this area. I am glad the Deputy raised the issue of social deprivation early in the debate because it became clear to us very early in great depth. Like the Deputy, I come from an area that has high levels of social deprivation, Finglas west, and I have witnessed many of the issues of drugs and the intimidation, violence and harm that go with them. The issue of trauma jumped out at us very early. The lived experience described by people was of going through early life trauma and using drugs to numb the pain or the issue. They then got criminal convictions, ended up in prison and then in a vicious cycle. That is the cycle we are anxious to break with our recommendations, the vicious cycle of criminality where there were other issues to be addressed.

I am familiar with the DRIVE project. Its members presented to us and I was with them at another of their presentations. I am very impressed by it. I will pass to Dr. Ivers who is a practitioner in the area of recovery and addiction to respond on the Deputy's issues and we will then get to recommendation 26 specifically.