Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support the National Youth Justice Strategy 2021-2027 launched earlier this year. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the policy. We have all witnessed the rise of antisocial behaviour in Ireland, but we must also be careful not to demonise the young people of our country. We must offer solutions and measures that can be extended to divert young offenders away from the criminal justice system beyond the age of 18. Our most recent census recorded almost 500,000 youths aged from 12 to 17. Garda figures revealed that approximately 3% of them will commit an offence annually. We must help those young people to avoid that fate. Early intervention and holistic wraparound policies may well be key, but we must also ensure that there is joined-up thinking and that one strategy in one Department is not undone in another because of issues with funding or resources. We see this happening time and time again. Great initiatives are started but then no funding or resources are forthcoming. This will be the game-changing aspect in this regard.

Therefore, when we talk about joined-up thinking and wrap-around policies we must see interdepartmental co-operation. We must all be on board and working together. I receive many calls involving antisocial behaviour. It can have a major impact on our communities and pose challenges for the Garda and other youth justice agencies. Sometimes, this antisocial behaviour can lead to serious crime and we must tackle it. It is important that we have a plan to do so. This strategy is welcome in addressing these challenges, as well as new and emerging issues in the youth justice area. Not only must we prevent offending behaviour from occurring, we must also have better ways of diverting children and young adults who commit crimes away from further offending and involvement with the criminal justice system. Youth crime has significant implications across a range of policies and aspects of service provision, including in the areas of child and family services, health, education and local authority functions. We are all affected, even if such crime is not necessarily happening on our street.

Research shows a strong link between youth offending and socioeconomic circumstances, as well as child and family welfare issues. We must examine this aspect carefully. If we do not put the supports required in place in those targeted areas, then tackling other challenges will surely be more difficult. We can do this and be successful by helping one youth at a time. However, we must work together and ensure that everyone is on board to provide better outcomes and better options for those who wind up in the justice system at a young age. Vulnerable people need a helping hand and support at all levels. That is the benefit of the Garda youth diversion project. We must work in our schools and in our communities to engage with young people and ensure that they are part of the solution instead of being seen as the problem. This is the major issue. Young people must be viewed as the solution and not the problem. We must adopt that perspective in future.

We are crying out for gardaí in my area of Carlow and in my wider constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny. I spoke about this matter recently. We need more gardaí on the streets and more community policing. I go to all the joint policing meetings but if the required funding and resources are not provided to An Garda Síochána, then our strategies are not going to work. One thing I have learned, and that we must always remember, is that we must start from the ground. We must work with the gardaí on the ground through community policing and that is how we will solve this problem. I again mention the Garda station in Leighlinbridge, which is another issue that I would like the Minister of State to address. I welcome this strategy and it is a start. We get moving on it straight away, because we do not want to be back here next year and find out that it has not progressed.

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