James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The point the Deputy touches on is correct. Nobody is born a criminal or with criminal inclinations. Young people are often groomed and drawn into crime. The key purpose of the Greentown Project, using evidence-based research, is to tackle the grooming of young people into crime. Money is often used to lure them into criminal activity. That is an important part of our youth justice strategy. The cause of young people getting into crime is also trauma informed, with them perhaps coming from very difficult backgrounds. It takes a lot of intensive work to help support those young people and redirect them away from criminal activity.

We see this funding as a starting point. It amounts to €2 million and is expected to grow. There will be an evaluation at the end of it to determine how the funding has been used.

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