Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

People might have an idea in their head of what law and order is, but I have a particular idea and it is not just about how we can police more and have stronger powers for the Garda. That is part of it, and it is important, when we see more Garda members being assaulted on our streets when doing their job and protecting all of us, that they be protected, that the laws be strong and that their resources be strong. That is why, when we increased the funding, as we have over recent years, it is to make sure the Garda has the tools, the technology, the equipment, the funding, the resourcing and the numbers it needs to be able to police effectively.

On the other hand, I fully accept we need to look at the root causes of crime, how we can prevent it and how we can support communities where it is more of an issue than in others, and the way to do that is through education and supporting people at a younger age. Working on youth justice with the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, who has overall responsibility, I know the funding in that regard has doubled in the past three years. By the end of this year, there will be full coverage when it comes to youth intervention programmes, which we have not had to date, but we need to go so much further. What we are looking at now is not just the typical programme that engages with young people at an antisocial behaviour level before it crosses a threshold and they go into the criminal justice system, but also where people are now in the criminal justice system and from a much younger age.

We have programmes that target eight-, nine-, ten- or 11-year-olds, which is awful but that is where need to be, unfortunately, so there is a question as to how we can expand that further, and the more money we can invest in it, the more we can expand. We had additional funding this year and, on top of that, I got additional funding for the joint agency response to crime, JARC, programme, which is a greater wraparound support, service or monitoring system, to a certain extent, to work with prolific younger people. To the Senator's point, if somebody comes out of prison, it is an easier route for them to go back into crime, so it is about how we can make that less easy for them.

Sometimes it is a matter of leading people by the hand; at other times it is a matter of having to be more focused and putting greater observation around them, so to speak, through the Probation Service, working with the Prison Service and the Garda. The community safety partnerships are all about how we get to the root causes, how we address issues in the community-----