Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is interesting when we have Bills where there is large amount of consensus, it often gives us the time in this House to talk about the other issues we would like to address to solve the core issue we are dealing with. I do not think we should underestimate the importance of the Bill. Deputy Catherine Murphy is right that there is always the potential for legislation to be a cheap way of looking like we are trying to solve a problem, but I do not believe that is the case in this situation. The reason I do not believe it is the case is because there is huge merit in this Bill. It is because it has come from the learnings in one of the area-based interventions we have made. We all know that communities themselves know what the solutions are to these issues. The findings of the Greentown study, led by the University of Limerick, identified how children were being groomed into criminal behaviour and the illegal drugs industry. Deputy Ó Ríordáin is spot on here. We have an opportunity in this Dáil to bring together a number of initiatives that I think have significant cross-party support. They are: the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use; the intervention by the Taoiseach to propose a child poverty unit within the Department of An Taoiseach; and the previous Taoiseach's, and programme for Government, commitment to roll out area-based interventions, or the north-east inner city model.

It is much bigger than one piece of legislation. It involves changes in policy on drugs and the treatment and services that come from that and changes in policy on education and the resources required. I am working with some of those groups calling for a DEIS plus intervention, which I think is necessary. It also involves a change in policies and practice on the ground in areas like job creation, social protection, Tusla and so on. This is an important step that forms part of a bigger picture. In this Dáil, there is significant support in government and in opposition to make changes. The only disagreement might be on how radical those changes might be. I speak to a tradition in my party that we would like a significant intervention to ensure the most vulnerable in society are protected.

I will now speak about what the Bill does. I wish to give credit to the now Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, who, in her former role as the Fianna Fáil spokesperson on children, proposed this, along with other Deputies who made similar suggestions. She came out to Ballymun and spoke to some of the agencies dealing with young people there. She said her initial inspiration was a particular family in which the father was encouraging his children to become involved in criminal activity, in petty burglary and so on. It was only when she came out to visit us in Dublin North-West that she realised that her Bill could also have a knock-on effect on kids being brought into the drugs industry. Sometimes we think there is a big divide between rural and urban Ireland but, in many ways, we are very similar.

This Bill decriminalises the child. I see the officials in the House, whose work I acknowledge. I hope I am interpreting the Bill correctly but until now, the person could be convicted of the crime the child was being convicted of. To ensure prosecution of the adult, there had to be prosecution of the child too. This Bill decouples that aspect. We have decriminalised the child in this scenario. It allows us to go after the adult and not have to prosecute the child. It also creates a new offence, which recognises the harm done by that adult to the child. Not only can the criminal behaviour be prosecuted, there is also the additional offence of compelling, coercing, directing or deceiving a child for the purpose of causing that child to commit a crime. That is important because there is something incredibly pernicious when an adult or person with power inveigles, coerces, directs or deceives somebody without that power or without that adult experience to commit a crime, who then becomes an innocent party in a criminal behaviour. It is an important intervention which comes from learnings on the ground in the Greentown initiative. We need to go much further. The Taoiseach's office has spoken about a sustainable way of rolling out the north-east inner city model. We talked about the child poverty initiative. Deputy Catherine Murphy will know that I made this case very strongly to the Department of Justice and the Secretary General at the Committee of Public Accounts in the past week. We must start getting progress on what we know is a commitment. There is a real desire at a political and official levels to get those area-based interventions in Ballymun and in places like Finglas, to support what is happening in Darndale and Cherry Orchard. I am sure Deputies across the House could talk about the most disadvantaged areas. We can finally break the cycle. All of the ingredients are there. This is one example of when you do it, a good legislative change comes back. Similar interventions are taking place in education, social protection and so on.

I spoke about the tradition in our party of looking after the most vulnerable. We also believe that in a village, you need the shopkeeper and the shop worker. We are generating huge economic resources in this State thanks to our management of the economy. We must use those resources to make significant interventions. We will do that by supporting those communities to come up with these task forces, giving them access to senior officials to engage with and coming up with solutions like this. I commend the officials and the Minister of State. I look forward to similar things from other area-based interventions.

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