Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I broadly welcome and support the national youth justice strategy. However, if adequate resources are not put into the various organisations and clubs that are mentioned in the document and there is not meaningful cross-departmental and agency co-operation, it simply will not work. We are talking about crime. There is an imbalance between what is invested in prevention and early intervention and what is put into the prison service at the other end. It is unfortunate, because we have to try and keep as many people as possible from getting involved in crime and ending up in the prison system. The vast majority of young people are good young people. If investment was put into the backgrounds of those who live with poverty and deprivation, we could solve or prevent a lot of problems. The drug problem is escalating everywhere.

As a former teacher, I think the school completion programme was an excellent programme. It still exists, but it is not as strongly resourced. I think there were cutbacks around the time of the recession. We need to put resources into that. The longer we keep young people in school or in training of some sort, the better chance we have of keeping them away from crime, drugs and getting involved in trouble. Sinn Féin has argued that tougher sentences need to be given to criminals who engage children in serious crime. My party colleagues, Deputies Ward, Kenny and Mitchell, introduced the Coercion of a Minor (Misuse of Drugs Amendment) Bill 2022, which will make it a stand-alone crime to use children for drug-associated criminal activity, with maximum sentence of ten years. The Bill has passed Second Stage in the Dáil and should be progressed as soon as possible. The Garda youth diversion programme also does excellent work, but again it needs to be better resourced.

In Cavan we have one of the highest suicide rates in the country, at roughly double the national average. I believe that a lot of them - not all of them - are youth suicides that are very much connected to the misuse of drugs. People are taking drugs and they do not know what is actually in them. Drug taking is causing serious depression and serious problems. We are looking at families who are absolutely devastated by the loss of their young ones. A lot more has to be done in providing youth services, which are seriously lacking in Cavan unless the young people are interested in sport. The different sports clubs there do great work, but there needs to be more investment in young people to keep them away from drugs and crime for as long as possible.

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