James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I again thank the Deputies raising this matter. I understand what they have said and I am in full agreement with them. There can be all sorts of underlying reasons the violence is happening and it needs to be confronted head-on. On tackling the underlying issues, perhaps something driving some of that violence is a lack of understanding or comprehension of the exact damage they are causing. That is where restorative justice can come into play by compelling young people to confront the damage they do and appreciate that it is not simply a five- or ten-minute incident but that it can have lasting effects, which very often lasts for years or the rest of people's lives. Restorative justice has a significant part to play in this, as does educating those young men on their thoughts and behaviours, and the toxic masculinity, as raised by Deputy Gannon, and the behaviour coming from that. This is evident in knife crime whereby people are beginning to carry knives out of a defensive purpose. However, if a person carries a knife, more than likely, it will be pulled out and used against the person or somebody else.

Following the setting up of the antisocial behaviour forum on knife crime, we should be able to conduct a scoping exercise within eight to ten weeks. We must then move on to the next phase by looking at what is driving some general antisocial behaviours, such as dangerous violence by young men. It is a trend we are seeing more of and it needs to be tackled. We are addressing this particular type of incident through the knife crime forum. However, we can look at the issue in a broader sense as well at the issue that seems to be developing. On the local community safety partnerships, there is one pilot established in north inner city Dublin, one in Waterford city and one in Longford. They will have a real impact and need to be rolled out. It will not be like the joint policing committees where politicians and gardaí sit at the top table. There will be gardaí and some politicians, but we also want representatives of the HSE, TUSLA, housing and other State agencies around that table so they can bring comprehensive approaches where there are localised issues of violence and antisocial behaviour.

See this speech in context