The “Ending the Harm” campaign was first launched in October 2018 and tells the story of a paramilitary-style shooting from the point of view of the victim, his mother, the shooter and a witness.

As of yesterday, the campaign has returned to radio and social media, and TV advertisements are scheduled to begin broadcasting from Monday. Outdoor advertising depicting an image of a badly beaten man will also be relaunched later this month.

Anthony Harbinson, chair of the Tackling Paramilitarism Programme Board, claimed that recent research indicated an “encouraging” change in public attitudes to paramilitary-style attacks (PSAs).

According to research for the Department, 35 per cent of people living in areas most impacted by PSAs said in 2017 that PSAs are justified in certain circumstances, whereas just 19 per cent held the same view in 2019.

However, the Department admitted the figures are not directly comparable “due to a change in how a paramilitary style attack was defined”.

Mr Harbinson said: “The latest statistics show that, between July 2018 and June 2019, there were 81 victims of so-called ‘paramilitary-style attacks’. This includes 17 victims of shootings and 64 victims of assaults. That’s approximately one attack every four days.

“In the previous 12 month period, there were a total of 79 so-called ‘paramilitary-style attacks’ – 20 shootings and 59 assaults. In June of this year alone, there were 12 assaults, the highest number in one month since April 2009.

“Although there has been a long term downward trend, this is still an issue that we as a society need to deal with and this campaign is a vital part of tackling this scourge on our communities.”