Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I strongly welcome the opportunity to speak on the youth justice strategy. I pay tribute to the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, and the Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, who addressed the House earlier. I also pay tribute to the early and ground-breaking commitment of Deputy Stanton when he was a Minister of State.

As a former teacher, I know that early intervention is critical for positive outcomes - for education certainly, but equally for other societal outcomes.

It is often said that early childhood teachers can predict the ultimate education outcomes of most of their students such is the effect of socioeconomic and household circumstances on their educational journey. Equally, as this strategy well recognises, the likelihood of young people interacting with the criminal justice system is too often set in train from an early age. A strategy that involves the whole of society, and not simply the criminal justice system or the Department of Justice or An Garda Síochána, is the only one that has any prospect of success. In his foreword to the strategy, the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, sets this out clearly enough. The analysis is well grounded and well done. The evidence is abundant and clear. The real and difficult bit is implementation to ensure the silos that have always existed are broken down and that a truely integrated youth justice strategy is not only devised but resourced and put into effect.

The first important principle, underscored throughout the strategy, is respect and the inclusion of the child. Our attitude to children has evolved remarkably over recent decades. Our historic attitude to children and our record has been shocking. The way we dealt with children in the past, particularly vulnerable children, has been cruel and unacceptable to which a multiplicity of inquiries and reports we have debated in this House bear ample and awful testimony. The voice of the child and young person, therefore, must be heard, as must the voice of advocates for vulnerable children who are not in a position to articulate their own position.

The second critically important issue relates to what I said earlier, namely, the tackling of disadvantage. Poverty, dreadful or no housing, the lack of any community support and lack of access to sports facilities, the arts and even more fundamental and basic services such as proper healthcare, including mental healthcare, are critical. The statistics are shocking. A snapshot of a breakdown of the children detained in Oberstown Detention Centre for the first quarter of 2019, which are the most recent figures I have, shows 19% were members of the Travelling community; 31% had suffered the loss of a parent through either death, imprisonment or no long-term contact; 41% were either in care or had significant involvement with Tusla; 23% had a diagnosed learning disability; 41% had mental health needs with 25% prescribed medication for a mental health concern; 71% were considered to have substance misuse problems; and 57% were not engaged in education prior their detention. If we want a snapshot of the most vulnerable of children, there we have it. Those are the people we have detained. We really must do better. Are we not all shocked and appalled by the litany I have just recited?

Young people who come into conflict with the law must be treated as children first. That is underscored in this document. The truth is their level of maturity and development must be recognised and embraced in planning a way forward that helps them on a positive development path. I note the foreword to the Minister's speech, includes the words - taking a better path - supporting young people and communities to make positive choices for themselves. In truth, what positive choices can those children I have just described make for themselves? It is not as if we are all equal. Some people can say, "I will take this path". If you come from the kind of environment we know populates Oberstown, as I have indicated, those choices do not exist. We as a society have to understand that and intervene in a way that allows that pathway to be different.

None of this implies a Pollyanna approach to youth crime nor does my analysis seek to minimise in any way the harm inflicted by young people who are engaged in crime. We all know the impact on the victims of crime, particularly what is regarded as low level crime, in communities where people are terrorised in their own homes and do not feel free to walk their own streets. The impact on those victims is horrendous. It is life-limiting and sometimes catastrophic for their life expectations. We must give protection to those people. We must also be robust and clear in ensuring they are allowed, as victims of crime, to live a proper and decent life as we would all expect.

I am deeply concerned about a number of issues. We might have a further opportunity to debate this. There has been an increase in the number of racist attacks and in racist graffiti issues that are now appearing in places such as Minerine Park, which is a brand new beautiful park in my own town in which some gobdaw decided to put horrendous, racist graffiti. We need to tackle these issues at source. As I said, I do not have a Pollyanna approach to any of this.

The detailed strategy is broad and comprehensive. It is built on wide foundations, which, if driven properly and appropriately and resourced adequately, can make a real difference. Clearly, not all actions fall on the Department of Justice to make; just like our understanding of policing reform, as the Minister of State will know, it requires a whole of community buy-in and every agency and department of State playing its part. The work to be done by the Governance and Strategy Group, supported by the Youth Justice Advisory Group and Youth Justice Oversight Group, will determine its success or lack of it.

It would be helpful if the Minister of State when replying to the debate could advise who is populating those critical bodies, namely, the Governance and Strategy Group, the Youth Justice Advisory Group and the Youth Justice Oversight Group. How often do they meet and to whom do they report? Do they report to the Minister of State regularly or to the Minister for Justice? Is the implementation of this important strategy an agenda item on the Cabinet sub-committee that monitors justice matters? If it is on the Cabinet subcommittee reporting list, as I believe it should be, then, I believe, we could see action. I know from my time in government that having an agenda item regularly coming before a group of Ministers, including the Taoiseach, with requirements for timeline reporting really makes a difference. I hope that the Minister of State, in her concluding remarks, will say this is a fine strategy but its implementation will determine whether it is worth the paper it is written on. I would like her to address those particular questions to give us all confidence that the strategy will indeed be implemented.

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