Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and her husband well. I am very pleased the Government has created a stopgap measure to provide her with the necessary maternity leave. I agree with previous speakers who stated that we need a solution that brings us up to date so that we can facilitate women in politics. It is 2021 but we are operating as if it was 1950 or even 1850. I wish her very well.

Like Deputy Martin Kenny, I support the Bill and consider it necessary legislation. We found ourselves in a quandary given that the media were referring to children who were victims of homicide and in many cases we knew the name of the child, but a voice could not be given to the child. To a degree, that retraumatises the family of a victim of what in some cases are heinous crimes. Deputy Kenny referred to the ongoing search in Drogheda, which we hope is successful. We all know the terrible story that brought us to that particular place.

It is another example of a case where we are taking away a sense of ownership and identity from a family and a victim and heaping on extra pain and we must remove that. While we wish everything could happen more quickly, we are where we are, and we must ensure we get the legislation passed and that we at least relieve the extra pain we are putting on people. Given the situation I spoke about earlier, like Deputy Kenny I think it is a fair point to make.

It is very hard in the context of general justice issues not to refer to the pandemic of drug crime that we are dealing with across the board. In fairness, I have spoken in this Chamber and privately to the Minister on the matter. We need a holistic system that delivers for us. We all accept that a multi-agency approach is required. It is fair to say that the current youth justice system is not correctly purposed to deal with the situation. A University of Limerick report was based on almost 1,000 children in danger of being involved in drug crime due to being groomed by criminal gangs that make use of certain weaknesses in the law. They find people who are already on the periphery of society and bring them into a netherworld where there are no wins. It is just heaping tragedy upon tragedy especially in working class areas throughout the State. We must do what is necessary to alleviate that.

In fairness to the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, they have spoken about their plans for a youth justice strategy that should be more fit for purpose. I welcome the outworking of that. A number of projects are currently in operation to try to reduce the danger of children becoming involved in criminal gangs. The work must be assessed and whatever pilot programmes are in operation must be extended to all communities in the State that are being ravaged by drugs crime.

I agree with what my colleague stated earlier about the need to give the Garda the powers and ability to deal with criminal gangs. We must ensure that we focus on and intervene in the families and children in communities that are in danger of falling into difficulty. Some might say such projects are incredibly costly, but we know the price of not putting in place early intervention. We know the price we pay for crime, whether it is ourselves or the wider community. We also know the cost of imprisonment is huge so we must do what we can to reduce the number of people who become involved in what is a dreadful business and is an impediment to society. We must do whatever we can to improve the situation.

To return to the legislation, it offers a solution that is required at this point. It is a sensible solution that will remove an element of pain from people who have already had to deal with dreadful pain due to the homicide of their own child or one who was closely related to them. That must happen as soon as possible.

At times, the justice system and its communications are not necessarily where they need to be. I refer to people who become victims of a serious crime and who have a genuine complaint because they are not always updated on Garda investigations or court proceedings. I accept they do not need to know the ins and outs of operational matters, but they should be told about developments concerning serious charges and when people are sentenced for homicide and other such crimes as well as parole. We must improve on our communications so that we do not add further pain to families who have already suffered far too much. I welcome this legislation. We must join the dots to improve the system and to deliver for people.

See this speech in context