Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming in to take this important issue. There is a real sense of fear among residents in the City Quay area in particular. They are worried about the ongoing street violence that is occurring almost every day. They are virtually being held hostage. Last Saturday week, a young 13-year-old was hospitalised after being stabbed. Thankfully, he will make a full recovery, although I understand it will take a while. It is amazing that someone has not been killed because when you see the knives and weapons seized by the Garda it seems to only be a matter of time before some child or young person will be killed. Then there will be a big outcry and we will say that we should have done this or that. The reality is we need something done now.

I completely understand that there is no simple or overnight solution and people recognise that. Gangs of young people are rampaging and cycling through streets like Townsend Street and smashing cars for the sake of it, and because they can. It is unrelenting and it is unacceptable that residents have to put up with it. Action is needed. If these groups of youths were outside the Minister of State's house, my house or the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's house, it would not be allowed and it should not be allowed outside the homes of residents in City Quay. No one should have to put up with this issue. I accept that the Garda is in a difficult position in that the young people carrying out this street violence are almost all children, which brings challenges. The Garda needs to be resourced better right across the inner city. It needs more resources to work with young people and the community section of the Garda needs to be more involved.

More resources also need to be allocated to community development and youth work groups. It is hard to imagine, given what is happening in the south and north inner city, that the local Talk about Youth group has no dedicated space to work from. Talk about Youth does fantastic work with young people in the community yet it has no place to call home and no dedicated space. It needs a dedicated space in which it can develop its projects and work with young people who are particularly hard to engage with. There needs to be funding for assertive outreach teams to do work with young people who are resistant to engaging with traditional youth groups. There are some local children involved in this but the majority come from quite a distance from the city centre. This 13-year-old came from Dublin 15 to the inner city on a Saturday night. We are failing as a society and we are failing to work with young people to address the issues. The Mulvey report allocated funding and resources for the north inner city and that has to be replicated in the south inner city because the north and south inner city are one community.

See this speech in context