Carlow-based Government TD Jennifer Murnane O’Connor will “sit down” with the families of two local teenagers killed in last weekend’s M9 crash to give them “help and support”.

The Minister of State, speaking on Friday as she attended a vigil in the town for four locals seriously injured in the head-on collision on Sunday August 16th, said it was a “devastating time” for Carlow.

The funeral of Alex McCarthy (16) from Carlow, one of the five teenagers killed in the incident, took place on Friday. He was killed when the BMW they were travelling in drove the wrong way down the northbound section of the M9 near Moone, Co Kildare, around 3am.

The funerals of Joe Carthy (15) from Athy and of Kamil Pustkowski (17) from Limerick were also on Friday.

The funeral of Jeremy O’Brien (18), also from Carlow, takes place on Monday, with that of Jack Kennedy (17), from Athy, Co Kildare, on Tuesday.

“I feel it’s more appropriate for me to contact the [O’Brien and McCarthy] families [next week], sit down with them and see what I can do to give them my help and support,” said Murnane O’Connor.

She said she knew the family of sisters Ella Hendricken, Niamh and Alma Kinsella and the seven-year-old nephew Yemi, who were en route to Dublin Airport when the crash happened.

Separately, organisations from Dublin’s north inner-city working with at-risk young people said recent commentary and language that “dehumanised” the five teenagers killed was “damaging”.

“Describing them … as though their lives had no value and their deaths did not matter … deepens divisions, causes further pain to grieving families and makes it more difficult to have the serious conversation that is now required,” said the North Inner City Community Coalition.

[ M9 crash: Wrong-way collision survivor ‘cannot believe it has happened again’Opens in new window ]

Andy O’Hara, co-ordinator of Uisce which advocates for active drug users, said it was possible to “have compassion” for the families of both the injured and the dead.

“We won’t prevent the next tragedy by simply deciding that some people are beyond care,” he said.

The reasons some young people from marginalised communities were getting involved in criminality had to be confronted.

“That doesn’t remove personal responsibility, but it helps us understand when we’re looking at prevention,” he said.