Ms Aoife Bairéad:

It is not just the steering group; it is the ongoing engagement year-on-year. A very simple ask we have made before is for a schedule of meetings with the Department for the year for the chairs' network and details of the meetings with the Minister. It is about common courtesy.

Across the board, I am baffled as to why the Department would not want to hear from us. That is what I am worried about. Why has it been decided that this is not needed? Why is there a scatter gun approach of picking different groups from different communities rather than going to networks like Citywide, ourselves and Pavee Point which are national and are trying to bring shared groups of voices in very powerful ways? I do not know why the Department is not interested in or even considering hearing those voices. I genuinely do not understand it.

It is not just about the steering group. It is also about how we engage with the ongoing process, move through applications to the citizens assembly and into practice and move through the next national drugs strategy. All of those things require very basic forms of communication being established and respected.