Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We agree that the best way to tackle the causes of crime is to invest in communities.

I would argue that social deprivation and marginalisation draw people into criminality. It can be very complex. Criminality involving drugs is extremely profitable. With the trappings come major amounts of money. There is an echelon who extremely well out of that and who generally do not live in the communities that are affected. Communities then feel the effects of that criminality. I do not have time to tease out the reasons. We must adopt a different approach to how we treat people who are drawn into crime. They are not bad people. They are just drawn in by the alternative economy. That economy can be a massive draw, especially in working-class areas. It draws in so many people who should not be there. In an ideal world, the funding of communities should not come from CAB sources. In a better world, where people are not drawn into crime, Government and State agencies would fund projects on their own initiative.

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