Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)

The Acting Chairman can remind me when I come close to the end of my time.

I will focus on the proposed new sections of the Criminal Justice Bill 2004 that specifically relate to children, primarily Part 12. My colleague, Deputy Crowe, has outlined our concerns regarding ASBOs in Part 13. The issues I can address today are limited by the time available and do not constitute an exhaustive list of Sinn Féin concerns.

In this State's report of July 2005 to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on its implementation of the convention the Government disingenuously stated:

The most important development on juvenile justice comes with the enactment of the Children Act 2001. This represents a major shift in how children in the juvenile justice and welfare systems will be treated.

The central principles underpinning the Children Act 2001 are prevention, diversion, rehabilitation, restorative justice, and detention as a punishment of last resort. The proposed additions to the current Criminal Justice Bill amount to an effort by the Government to roll back on the crucial child protection commitments made in the Children Act 2001. If these amendments are allowed to pass, then the principles that I have just listed will in fact not govern how children in this State will be treated.

In its concluding observations in 1996 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child criticised this State for its low age of criminal responsibility. Following this the Government made a commitment to raise the age of criminal responsibility from seven to 12 years. This commitment was expressed in the Children Act 2001 which made provisions for the reform. The Government refused to put this part of the Act into operation. Now the proposed amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill would set the age of criminal responsibility for serious crimes at ten years, effectively lowering the age of criminal responsibility for these crimes by two years.

The Irish Youth Justice Alliance has asked what will be achieved by bringing a child aged ten years to court and detaining him or her with older teenagers without treatment, therapy or re-education. We support the alliance's argument that such children need the support of specially trained professionals and of rehabilitative and therapeutic programmes to address their complex needs and prevent them from reoffending. Sinn Féin will push for the exclusion of this provision from the Bill.

The Children Act 2001 prohibits the reporting of personal information about children facing criminal proceedings that might lead to the identification of a child in question. The Minister is now proposing to eliminate these protections by allowing the court to lift the reporting restriction in certain circumstances. The Minister's proposal contravenes Article 40 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which recognises the absolute right of the child to his or her privacy at all stages of proceedings.

The amendment also includes a provision to shift responsibility for the detention of children under 16 years from the Department of Education and Science to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. While we welcome the provision that all children under 18 years will fall under one Department, we believe the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform to be the wrong choice. The report on the youth justice review published by the Department last July states that the service with responsibility for children in detention would be best located in a care and social services setting, as is the practice in many other jurisdictions. Sinn Féin will table amendments to give effect to those recommendations.

A further issue of grave concern to Sinn Féin is the provisions in the Minister's proposals for the continued use of St. Patrick's Institution for the detention of children. The Minister is prolonging the use of St. Patrick's Institution despite the fact that the practice of detaining children there runs contrary to international human rights provisions and universally accepted child protection guidelines. This fact has been identified by the Inspector of Prisons and Places of Detention and by the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture. The Whittaker report on St. Patrick's Institution stated more than ten years ago that rehabilitation is not possible as the physical and environmental conditions are such as to nullify any personal development programmes. The facilities and services required would not be provided even in a renovated St. Patrick's Institution.

It is vital that youth justice policies recognise that the primary concerns of children before the courts are welfare-based. The Children Act 2001 aimed to achieve balance between the need to administer justice and the need to protect the welfare of all children. That Act, which the Government is now attempting to roll back, was not allowed to fulfil its potential to address crime or anti-social behaviour by children because this same Government starved it of resources and refused to put it into effect. Sinn Féin will vote against the inclusion of most of Part 12 in the criminal justice legislation and calls on the Government once more to resource and implement the Children Act 2001 in full.

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