Mr. Paul Perth:

It is good to see Senator Ruane and Deputy Ward. It is no coincidence that they are both here talking about this and inviting us here. What we do is street work, primarily. I have been engaged in different types of youth work and I am passionate about youth work in general. I am not here to testify that street work is better than centre-based youth work. I believe there is a place for all forms of youth work.

Our young people have so many different complex needs, including those relating to mental health and generational trauma - all the things everybody else has talked about. There is a major disconnect. I do not know if it is a fear. I see and know what the Senator is talking about. I spent years in different meetings, as did other people, listening to youth workers saying that when young people hit a certain age, they stopped working with them. I and other youth workers said it was actually us who stopped working with them.

I will talk about the past 11 months in Tallaght. When I first went up there and got the job, there were some areas in west Tallaght that people referred to as hot spots - I am sure we all know them - and said not to go into them. They said that it would be mad to do so and that we would not get out alive, and all these kinds of comments. We have risk assessments and we follow protocols. We have all the code names, code words and everything like that. We wear high-visibility jackets, and people identify us as youth workers. We do all that and we have never once been threatened or felt threatened. I am six feet tall and have a bald head. This is sometimes to my advantage and sometimes to my disadvantage. A fellow might think I want to have a go off him or else he might run away from me, depending on what kind of humour he is in. I work as part of a diverse team, and young people are so open. I say this a lot and I mean it: I am passionate about what I do.

The young people of west Tallaght, and I am going to talk on their behalf, have lost of stories. Many of them are so disconnected that they have no one to tell those stories to. They cannot walk into the centre. Some of them are barred from it. They cannot come in because they will engage in antisocial behaviour. Until they can respect the centre, they cannot come in. I understand that kind of thinking. I do not believe in it, but I understand safety. I have never once been threatened nor have I felt threatened on the streets of Tallaght. I refer to Jobstown, the Mac Uilliam estate and places like that. We had a lad start with us a couple of weeks ago. He said he used to put the foot down when he passed a certain place in Tallaght because he was afraid of his life. He is in there now and laughing, joking and meeting people where they are really at.

We engage with young men and women. On a Monday night, as a quick example, we engage with around 30 young people. Some of them sell drugs and some of them will never need our service because they will do fine by themselves. The school will look after them. We just create safe spaces for an hour where there is no pecking order. People can just go for the same ball with the same intensity and aggression and then get up and get on with it. This is what youth work brings: a level opportunity for everyone to be themselves and to tell their stories. It gives us an opportunity to talk to them and to treat them like people, like humans. We might signpost them on somewhere else or maybe just listen to them.