Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Youth Justice Strategy 2021–2027. It is a very good document and I do not believe there is anything in it that I or anybody else could disagree with or argue against. None of this will work, however, unless adequate resources are put into the various organisations and clubs that are mentioned in the document, and that we ensure there is cross-departmental and agency co-operation when working together. It is very important.

When I think about or discuss crime, whether it is youth crime or crime in general, there is an imbalance between what is invested in prevention and early intervention and what is put into the Prison Service at the other end. It is unfortunate because we have to try to keep as many people as possible from getting involved in crime.

My background is in teaching. I spent almost 30 years teaching in a DEIS school in County Cavan. Like others have mentioned, the vast majority of young people I encountered over those years were absolutely brilliant. If one investigated a little into the backgrounds of the few who did present with issues, that is where the problem was.

When I first started teaching, because I was only teaching part time and not full time, I worked in a pub during the summer. It was an eye-opener and an education for me. I witnessed parents coming in and perhaps spending the whole day drinking in the pub, with their children running around the street doing God knows what or mixing with God knows who. It made it clear that some of these children have very poor backgrounds. In fact, not that long ago, before I left teaching, I heard of students going into a different pub in their school uniforms and sitting at tables doing their homework because the parents were at the bar drinking.

A common denominator for a lot of young people who get involved in crime is poverty and deprivation. Those issues need to be tackled. Addiction is another huge issue and, again, proper services need to be put in place to deal with that. Mental health is the other issue. We need many more mental health supports as well.

When I was teaching, the school completion programme was excellent in trying to keep those in danger of early school leaving in school. It is vitally important to keep young people in education and training. That was probably around the time of the recession and the next thing was that the budget was slashed. The programme was not done away with but the resources were greatly curtailed. It is an awful pity. It would be great if more funds could be put into the school completion programme to bring it back to life and work with many of the young people.

I want to echo comments about the Garda youth diversion programme, which does excellent work. Again, additional resources that could be put into that and into community policing would be more than welcome. The need for additional funding for sports other youth activities is also vitally important.

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