No more ‘going through the motions’, warns youth expert

A Government setting up a task force sounds impressive. It’s what the Taoiseach told the Dáil on Wednesday. The task force, he said, will deal with the “local situation” in the north inner city.

Fergus McCabe is a veteran community and drugs campaigner in the north inner city, his work stretching back 30 years or so. He has sat through numerous state-appointed task forces and high-level strategy groups and has even stepped down from one due to the lack of action.

“This can’t be the attitude of ‘let’s set up a body, go through the motions, publish a report and that’s the end of it’,” said Mr McCabe, who is chairman of Young People at Risk in the north inner city.