Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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The witnesses are all very welcome. I have dealt with many of them over the years in the context of some of the work they are doing. They led off this morning by speaking about the scale of the challenge we face. I think it was Mr. Collins who said that he has not seen the situation on the ground as bad as it is now. I think that is a common view. The witnesses sit on drugs task forces. I think that is the view of people there. I know some of them over the years from different work.

Back in the nineties, we were trying to deal with joyriding. That was a big challenge . It is still a challenge in some areas today. Scrambler bikes are probably the big challenge in some of our parks now. We tried to set up in Killinarden at that time a group called the cop on group. It was basically trying to get young people at risk involved, what we are talking about here today. We identified at that time that these young people were probably going to end up in the justice system, were going to end up possibly on drugs or would probably end up in criminality or whatever else. Many of them are dead; they are no longer with us. It was unsuccessful, but there was a group in Ballyfermot at the time, We Have a Dream. We were based on that model. We were trying something different with very little resources and very little support. I do not really see much difference today as regards a lot of the work the witnesses are doing. Again, we are scrambling around for funding and trying to get support. I do not get the sense that the scale of the problem is understood in here. I got elected first in 2002. I do not believe there is any real understanding of the scale of the challenge facing communities. Some politicians and some communities live in a bubble in that this does not affect them. In parts of my constituency, the difference is between day and night as regards the challenges people face. Mr. Perth talked about the situation with people in poverty. It is a right of passage in parts of my constituency, the norm, that you go on to third level education. At the other end, it might be 5% or 6% of people, maybe 10% in some estates but even less in some groups, that go on to college. There is that challenge.

One of the things we probably need to address here is the funding model. If we are grasping every year for funding, we are on a losing wicket. As regards the scale of the challenge, I think there is a huge amount of data out there. I know some of the witnesses are saying we need to modernise, but how many more reports do we need to keep writing on these issues, on the challenge?

I will give the committee an example. Some of them talked about suicide. On Saturday, in Tallaght village, there was a young man in a block of flats - there is a picture of him there now - and gardaí were trying to talk him down. If he did come down, he would probably have broken a leg or something like that. He was taken to Tallaght hospital. He signed himself out and tried again. The third time, he threw himself off a bridge. He is no longer with us. The first step in Tallaght village was a cry for help. The supports were not there, and that was another one lost. Again, some of the witnesses talk about the number of suicides they come across with their various groups and so on. There would have been spikes in that regard, and that has been going up and down. Again, some of it is related to trauma. The witnesses have talked about that. Some of it is related to the lack of supports and the frustration of young people who cannot articulate themselves. No one seems to be listening.

I started off by speaking about how we are trying things differently, trying to do different things. One of the key things is the street work, that we are actually getting out of the community centres, where before we were always trying to bring young people in. Now, clearly, we need to go out and talk to them because there was always a cohort of young people who would not join the club. You always wondered, if they joined the club, would we be successful?

I have not asked the witnesses any questions. I am conscious that there is a huge challenge as regards funding. What do they feel in that regard? Do they think that we, as politicians, get the challenges that are faced out there? Third, if they had a magic wand, what would they do? Ours is a very rich country. We keep being told that there is €23 billion-plus in the coffers. Is that being reflected in the witnesses' communities?