Anne Ferris (Wicklow, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegations, especially the two gentlemen who have travelled far to get here. I found the presentations very interesting. Last year, I had the good fortune, along with the Chairman, to visit Midtown Community Court in New York, and meet the directors and teachers of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. One of the directors informed me that when he Googled my name, he found out we both went to the same primary school as he was also born and reared in Dublin.

I saw the operation of the community court at first hand with people called by their docket number, appearing before the judge, hearing their crime and how they were dealt with.

As Mr. McGillicuddy said earlier, they were not sent off to a probation officer with a phone number but were told to go up to the sixth floor straight away. We visited there afterwards and met the people who are running the operation where these people were queuing up. We met the counsellors, the lawyers and probably some interns and heard about the community services that people are given. I was blown away with optimism about this system. Deputy Niall Collins asked earlier where they get the paint if somebody is sent to take graffiti off the wall as part of community service. This is where the business community comes in. We listened and talked to business people there who told me it had cleaned up huge areas. Their businesses had blossomed, new businesses were coming in and it had rejuvenated the centre of the city. It was absolutely wonderful. I came back full of ideas.

We are talking about restorative justice, fines, sentencing and mediation and how it can work. I am sure Mr. Justice Reilly is sitting there saying "I've been saying this for the past 20 years and you're only listening now." However, I think we have it in all strands now. Everybody is on board. The idea of the one-stop shop which I took away from the centre is the important thing. People should feel they are not being sent out the front door and have to find somewhere else to go. People should know that they will go somewhere else within the building, will be met and will sit down with people. It relates to the person or people in respect of the crime they have committed. It is absolutely fantastic to have this in the courts system and I know the Minister is completely committed to doing this. I am sure resources have to come from somewhere for it to be a success. It involves the courts system, lawyers, the business community and local community, as the Lord Mayor has said, because local communities are often affected by the crime so they must be dealt with as well.

Outreach is another issue. We received a very good submission from Tiglin in my constituency in County Wicklow about rehabilitation. This is probably for more than just the quality-of-life crimes. We are coming together and moving in the right direction and we have the Minister pushing it for us. We are right behind him.