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

I thank the Minister of State. Like previous speakers, I was one of the first to welcome the Bill to outlaw the grooming of children into crime in 2021. "Fagin's law", as we called it, was a key piece of legislation for Fianna Fáil when we were in opposition, of which I was fully supportive then. Diverting young people from involvement in criminal activity is a key priority for me. The exploitation of young people and children is particularly concerning. People are preying on the vulnerable and it has to stop. It is vital that a criminal adult may be prosecuted for a crime committed by a child who has been incited to do so by the adult. We need the mechanism in law for recognising the damage done to the child. It is important to penalise adults for the exploitation and harm done to the child. It is exactly what the Minister of State said this Bill is about - the child.

We must tackle crime at all levels in all areas of our society, from stopping gang bosses from committing the most awful crimes, to preventing them from leading our young into a life of crime. Criminals need to know we are deadly serious about ensuring they cannot exploit our young for their own ends. We must also be serious about ensuring that crime does not pass down through generations.

Sadly, in Carlow, like in other areas, there are challenges, particularly among 18- to 25-year-olds. There are some criminal activities and there is also anti-social behaviour, which I know is the situation across the country. We are lucky, however, to have the youth diversion programme in Carlow. When a child comes to the Garda's attention for a low-level criminal behaviour, they are then offered the services of Carlow regional youth service to try to address the issue and reduce the behaviour. This a successful project and while funding is available for it, we must examine funding youth services to re-engage children out of a route of crime. There must be funding for initiatives for young people in the evenings and at weekends. The focus should be across the country on children having places and spaces to engage in youth-centred activities, not of a criminal kind.

The Minister of State will be aware of the old saying about "idle hands" and all that. Let us work on engaging children after school with free, accessible and enjoyable child-centred programmes that do not depend on the resources of parents. It is a huge challenge.

The GAA is a great model to engage children but not all children are into football or hurling. Taking the example of parish clubs, I would like to see parish basketball courts, free swimming lessons, horse riding, theatre, arts, coding and music clubs, all of which are accessible to those of means. It is often those who see the riches crime can bring who enter into it - criminals actively promote what crime can pay to recruit young children into their world.

Some children get into trouble, so we must examine prevention and get to the children before they offend. I spoke recently about the importance of a community centre for Carlow, which entails staff working with our communities and listening to them. We must listen to the voices of our communities and tailor the response to them. While I am speaking about communities, I can only again highlight Carlow town, which has a big population, yet only has two community garda. The Minister of State said it is not in his remit but I ask that it be highlighted that we need more than two community garda in Carlow town.

We must invest in youth and community work and let the community have its say on how to support engaging children away from crime. If a child is beyond diversion and is already in the courts system, it is probation. We must investigate projects that work with young people in trouble and support for families whose children have been groomed by criminals. That was something that came up when I spoke to a family recently. They feel there is no support for parents. We must examine that issue. I ask that we try to put more funding and supports in place for parents.

I wish to speak about Carlow again. There is no probation project in Carlow. It is important to me.

We do not want those already in the courts system in the programmes for the children we are trying to keep out of the courts system, so we need a separate initiative, what is called a probation project, from the diversion project. I believe there is such a probation project running in Athy in County Kildare, which is only half an hour from Carlow town. I am sure our Ceann Comhairle is aware of it. This is an excellent initiative. There are probation workers in Carlow, but there is no designated project for Carlow. I ask that this be examined. We need a service to work with the communities. We need to show that. I again ask that we consider this type of project for Carlow.

Breaking the link between criminal gangs and the vulnerable young people they try to recruit will be essential if we are to divert young people from lives of crime. This legislation will seek to further protect children from being drawn into a life of criminality, with all the potential lifetime consequences that entails. It also seeks to further disrupt the activity of criminals in our communities. This is also what we are trying to achieve. We must invest in prevention, support and communities. That is the most important and best way to move forward in this regard.

I welcomed the new youth justice strategy in 2021. I again acknowledge the work done by the Minister of State, Deputy Anne Rabbitte, in this area before assuming her current portfolio. She is as passionate as I am in looking at ways to prevent the recruitment of children into engaging with criminal activity. We must make interventions and criminalise those adults who induce children to commit crimes. We have a long way to go in doing this.

We must go into communities that have high rates of criminality and examine the range of issues affecting them, including the needs of the young people in these areas, the opportunities available to them and the root cause which leads to criminal activity taking hold. I am delighted to be part of that process and I welcome this initiative. There have been many challenges in this area and we need to do a great deal more. I know it is not within the remit of the Minister of State but community gardaí have a major part to play in that regard. I will continue to highlight this issue. I again welcome this legislation.

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