Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 24 October 2024
Committee on Drugs Use
Family and Community: Discussion
9:30 am
Mr. Paul Perth:
It is also about the language we use. Coming from the street work background, many people tell us what we are doing is great and that we are getting young people off the street. That is a misconception. We are actually working with people on the streets. As a sector, we need to look at the language we use. We forget that. Mr. Whiteley is always in my ear about this. Young people have rights. We talk about their needs all of the time but we forget about their rights. They have the right to hang around the shops or to be in the park. Somebody needs to be in there nurturing, regulating and all of this type of stuff. I will give a real-life example of a guy we work with. We started an initiative called Run with Rob because Mr. Whiteley is a runner. He might talk about it later on but loads of stuff is happening within that. It is not about running.