Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ms Yiasouma referenced the culpability at 12 piece. I would love her general thoughts on that. When you come from a community that has been heavily ostracised or marginalised, you even mature at different rates. Risk is situational; it is context dependent. The way we respond and take risk in some communities may not be understood by communities that have a different safety net or setting around them. Culpability nearly almost needs to be fluid rather than static. It needs to take in many different issues or things that are happening. I would love Ms Yiasouma’s thoughts on that in general.

Feeding on from that, how flexible can culpability be? Obviously, it cannot be flexible in terms of what is written in the law. Deputy Creed talked about spirituality, principles and values. Like Ms Yiasouma said, there are a huge number of values in communities, such as the loyalty, humour and the way we look after each other. That might not go out into the rest of the world but the loyalty, commitment, determination and will is huge. Within that, there are a load of unmet needs, such as undiagnosed learning difficulties, intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, ASD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD and dyspraxia, and the issue of being able access any sort of care for them. Then add in a chaotic situation. Schools are often doing crisis management rather than having the luxury to learn. You mix all of those things into one pot and you then have this cut-off age for culpability when there are so many other different things going on. Regardless of whether we can or cannot change the culpability thing or whatever case has to be made for that, how do we then treat people who potentially have diagnoses that have not been detected? Is there room to be able to access diagnosis? Can that then affect whether the right place for somebody is in a secure home instead of having an adequate diagnosis and heavily funded supports into those young people and their families to steer them away from a secure home?