Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the strategy and commend all those involved in producing it. If implemented, it will have a significant impact on young people at risk and help to divert them from criminal and antisocial behaviour. As a former co-ordinator of Meitheal and the child and family support networks, CFSNs, with Tusla, in the Dublin 17 area, I saw incredible results yielded by a parent and child led process that puts the young person firmly at its centre. However, the process fell down regularly because of the serious resource pressures that many of the agencies we worked with were under. There needs to be – and I know it has been mentioned on several occasions because it is such a critical piece of the jigsaw - a significant increase in funding to all of the agencies involved in working with young people. This is to ensure that the agencies will have time to attend agency, inter-agency or Meitheal meetings. This was a significant issue when I was organising such meetings in the Coolock and Darndale areas.

I highlight the need for supports for young people and their families so that they can access services in a timely manner. This topic is brought up pretty much on a daily basis in this Chamber. Children, particularly young people with additional needs, have huge problems in trying to access services. I have just finished a meeting about services for dyslexia. Children often have to wait two to three years to access these services. Many of the problems start at the ages of three, four, five or six years. It is at those points that the children start to disengage from education. In my direct experience working in the Coolock and Darndale area for nearly 20 years, and as a representative for many years in Dublin West, I saw many young, vulnerable people who did not get access to services when they needed them. They were gradually drawn into criminal and anti-social gangs because they were vulnerable, out of school and not engaged because they were on the streets without something to do.

The cuts to youth services, drugs support services, autism spectrum disorder, ASD, services, child mental health services, adolescent health services, and community addiction teams are still being felt today. I know that. I have seen and experienced it. These people will experience it on a daily basis when they are trying to access these services. Yesterday, attending a conference for Travellers on Travellers in prison, I was reminded of the visiting teacher service that was provided for Travellers. We had one of the most incredible visiting teacher services for Travellers in the Coolock area before it was cut. The Traveller community makes up only 1% of the entire population, yet its members comprise 10% of the prison population. The visiting teacher service for Travellers, which was tiny and cost very little money, was cut. I saw the devastating impact that cut had on the Traveller community.

It would be remiss of us not to discuss community policing because it is also a critical part of this strategy. I speak to community gardaí regularly. They tell me all the time that their service is on its knees. They do not have the resources or people on the ground to be able to deal with what they face. If we are asking these gardaí to work with and engage with young people on the ground, attend inter-agency and Meitheal meetings, and meet community representatives and residents associations, then we have to resource them on the ground and put people into Garda stations to ensure they can do that job.

If we do not then, unfortunately, the strategy will be doomed to failure and will become another document that is put on a shelf. I welcome the funding of community-based interventions for the most serious and prolific young offenders and their families, and for those who are at significant risk. I agree that in most cases detention should be the last resort. To ensure community buy-in, the system must be well funded and resourced with highly skilled youth and family workers who should be given everything they need to divert these hard-to-reach young people away from crime and antisocial behaviour.

In appendix 1, section D indicates how bad the situation is. One of the principles of this document states, "that criminal proceedings shall not be used solely to provide any assistance or service needed to care for or protect a child". It is appalling that, in a youth strategy, we are asking people as a principle not to bring children to court or engage them in the criminal justice system to access services. That shows us how bad the situation is. This strategy concerns the people who are most at risk. I am concerned that the youth services will be diverted from those who are considered "at risk" and that they will not get the service which prevents them from getting to the stage where they are considered "most at risk". I ask the Minister to review that part of the strategy, because I am concerned about the young people who are on the road of crime but are not considered at serious risk, so that they can engage with some services.

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