Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I represent an area of Dublin that gets a significant proportion of the coverage of the criminality and antisocial behaviour that occurs on our streets, that is, the south inner city. The people causing this ongoing trouble need to be tackled and challenged. We talk about rights, and it is important to remember that families have the right to live in their homes without fear. Garda resources need to be increased, particularly the number of community gardaí, who do a fantastic job. In the context of these statements, it is important to remember that the vast majority of people living in the inner city are hard working and many have spent the past 19 months of the pandemic working on the front line.

According to the strategy, research shows links between youth offending and socio-economic circumstances. This has been known for years and there have been many strategies, yet we have not diverted resources to where they are needed. Services are fragmented, as was accepted by the Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, in his opening statement. An example of that fragmentation is the division of the north and south inner cities. They are one community - an inner city docklands community - with more in common than separates them. The IFSC came into the north inner city and displaced a large section of the community. Today, high-tech companies like Facebook, Google and TikTok have arrived in the south inner city, displacing large sections of that community. The north inner city has had its challenges and resources have been directed towards its community under the umbrella of the Mulvey report. The south inner city needs and deserves the same process and resources that the Mulvey report secured for the north inner city.

Another example of where services are fragmented is in the delivery of youth services. Talk About Youth is a great youth service covering the Pearse Street area, but it does not have a dedicated youth space. We can have all the plans and strategies we want, but if we do not get the basics right, they will not deliver change for young people in working class communities. We need to ensure that youth services like Talk About Youth have the basics and their own spaces.

The strategy mentions early intervention, but I see little evidence of such intervention in my constituency. I see new parents struggling with parenting. That is where there needs to be intervention. I see children of ten or 11 years of age running drugs in the community. Working with families needs to be a priority. We need to develop assertive youth work teams that tackle and challenge hard-to-reach young people.

This strategy is welcome, but unless we get the basics right, it will do nothing but gather cobwebs.

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