Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the National Youth Justice Strategy this afternoon. Youth justice responses have always been seen as a reaction to young people involved in crime. As communities, we need to come together to find ways to assist our young people, guide them away from a life of crime and enable them to meet their full potential. Detention must be seen as a last resort. I welcome the fact that this strategy seems to be more proactive and acknowledges the reality of our young people's lives. Expanding the youth justice programmes and funding them properly can only have a positive impact on our communities. Garda youth diversion projects had their funding slashed over the years of austerity and have not come close to full recovery. We need to see a serious investment in this area. Community policing is an issue have raised in this House many times because it is really important when it comes to engaging with young people. The football street leagues, for example, have had a lot of success in certain areas in Dublin. Good community gardaí can make a real difference and we need to see more of them.

This strategy does not just fall to the Department of Justice. A number of State agencies need to up their game. I hope we can see an improvement in how agencies interact with each other when it comes to making timely and important interventions in young people's lives. We need everybody working with young people to do so in a co-ordinated way to make sure that the best interests of our young people are front and centre.

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