Professor Catherine Comiskey:

I am also doing some research on prevention. The Government gave out five big grants for work on prevention and I am involved in two of them. I have been learning about European prevention. Regarding what Mr. McBrien and I were talking about this morning, it is not about just saying no. That does not work. It is about giving young people the skills to make informed decisions. In the context of all the preventions now, the evidence refers to showing young people how to make a decision. An example would be if someone were asked if they would like another drink and replying, "Ah no, my father is collecting me and he'd kill me". Other examples would be someone being asked if they wanted to smoke something and replying, "Ah no, I have football in the morning" or if it was suggested having sex, someone replying, "No, if my mother found out, she'd kill me". It is about giving young people the resilience and not about the legal approach. It is about giving young people resilience. If we give them that, it will carry over to consent, alcohol and drugs. This is what I am seeing in the research. The EMCDDA has looked at this issue twice.