Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this strategy, which is quite good. It is important that we recognise that many juvenile offenders suffer multiple disadvantages and that early intervention is the key to reducing the number of juvenile offenders. That is really a critical and important thing to say.

When I read the strategy and its accompanying notes, I was thinking about how this will work in my constituency of Limerick. As the Minister of State is probably well aware, we have huge problems in parts of our city. Some parts suffer from massive disadvantages, whether that be poverty or where parents in families have addiction problems. Youth unemployment is off the scale in Limerick. Eight of the top ten unemployment black spots in the State are in my city of Limerick. Obviously, there are other factors which contribute to youth criminality or whatever they are up to. People might come from backgrounds of domestic abuse or where there is a failure of parenting in a family.

I commend the strategy. I think it will really work well if we are serious about this. We can make those interventions that can save lives, families and communities. The flip side is that if we do not, we will be back to where we are. We have seen it across communities and we had difficult problems in my own city a number of years ago. Thankfully, we are not exactly there but I am concerned that we are on the tipping point where it might be coming back to that scenario. The impact it has on people and communities can be dramatic. People have a right to live free and safe in their own homes and sometimes it does not happen. It is, therefore, important.

One of the biggest things we did in Limerick, which was hugely successful a number years ago until, unfortunately, the numbers were cut, was to have community gardaí on the streets. They really got involved in communities and spoke to young people. They were involved in the sports clubs in the local communities and in residents' associations. Unfortunately, however, the numbers dropped. I have the details of the cuts to community gardaí in front of me. In 2008, there were 92 community gardaí in Limerick city and in July 2020, there were 31. That is a huge drop-off in community gardaí in Limerick, who genuinely did a massive amount of work and made a massive contribution to making our community safe.

Youth crime has an impact on communities, whether that is drugs, scrambler motorbikes or small incidents of antisocial behaviour. It is really upsetting people. In the short time I have, I will emphasise the fact that the vast majority of young people are very good kids. They have done a really good job, especially in the last number of years with the pandemic. They have done fantastic work and it is important that we mention that as well.

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