Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have brought up the issue before of children who grew up in chaotic sets of circumstances and the need for early intervention and supports. I have also spoken about the fact that, like many others, I have had to deal with some of these chaotic instances that impact greatly on the wider community and that we do not have the supports of the tools, whether from An Garda Síochána, Tusla, the council or anybody else. I welcome the huge work done at times by the likes of the projects run out of The House in Cox's Demense, the TEAM Project in Muirhevnamor and by Craobh Rua. I could talk about the Louth ABC Changing Lives Initiative or Springboard when it was operated once upon a time with more resources in Muirhevnamor. There were early family supports. That is where we need to go to. Can the Government something that is cross-departmental? We understand this is the responsibility of the Departments of children, Health and Justice. This is from a point of view of looking at the sort of supports we could put in early to have an impact on these children and families and breaking poverty and ensuring children get through to education and jobs and all that is necessary. However, we also need to provide those supports to deal with those communities that are impacted when this all goes wrong and we have not put those supports in.

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