James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My colleague, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, addressed the House earlier about the unprecedented budgetary allocation for the justice sector. I am pleased to have opportunity to mention the significant impact this will have on communities across the country.

Communities are at the heart of all that we do across the justice sector and community safety is central to the vision of the Commission of the Future of Policing in Ireland. Fundamentally, all members and staff of An Garda Síochána work to keep our communities safe, and the additional funding that will see more gardaí on our streets, better equipped than ever before, will ultimately benefit every community in Ireland.

The future of our communities rests with our young people and we owe it to them to give them every opportunity to make the most of their potential and move away from poor choices or youthful mistakes. Everyone deserves the chance to change a badly-chosen path or move away from a situation they no longer want for themselves. To this end, we have increased the funding for youth justice programmes by €0.5 million, bringing the total allocation for this to almost €18 million for 2021. This funding principally supports the work of Garda youth diversion projects, which are delivered by community-based organisations working closely with An Garda Síochána. The objective of these programmes is to promote positive life choices by young people so that they can steer clear of involvement with the criminal justice system. Of course, our preference would be to take steps to ensure that young people do not become involved in anti-social or criminal activity in the first place. However, if they do come to Garda attention, we must make every effort to divert them away from any further offending behaviour.

It is important to remember that a very small proportion of our young people actually become involved in criminal activity. Instead of just reacting to criminal behaviour by young people, we must look more intently at the reasons that happens to those few so that we can take more effective measures to reduce the impact of youth crime and anti-social behaviour. That sort of preventative approach will be a key principle underpinning a new youth justice strategy which I hope to finalise before the end of this year. I firmly believe that investing in diversion and prevention will pay great dividends in the long term, not least for the young people themselves, but for their families, communities and wider society. It is our duty to provide the supports that will enable children and young people to develop in a positive manner and contribute to their own communities. In this way, the Government's continuing investment in youth justice programmes promotes enhanced community safety for everyone by tackling the often complex issues which underlie youth crime and anti-social behaviour.

I also welcome the additional funding provided in the budget for the establishment of the office of the gambling regulator in 2021. This is a commitment in the programme for Government and is a priority for me over the coming years. This will form part of the Department's ongoing reform of gambling licensing and regulation of gambling in Ireland.

It is also worth highlighting a few of the areas in the Department's Vote where the extra funding provided for 2021 will contribute to greater access to justice overall. An additional €3.7 million for criminal legal aid brings the total allocation to €69 million and additional funding for FLAC, the Free Legal Advice Centres, has been trebled to a total allocation of €294,000 to support legal services to the most vulnerable in our society. Funding for victims of crime has risen by €300,000, bringing the total allocation to €2.2 million.

The record allocation this year for the justice group of Votes gives us the resources we need to do our work in fulfilling our programme for Government commitments and I look forward to updating the House on progress over the coming months.

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