Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the youth justice strategy. It is a vitally important area of work. Previous speakers have spoken of the role the community and voluntary sector plays in keeping young people active and busy, whether it is through sport, drama, music and different things like that. That is vitally important. We are very fortunate in this country to have a such a strong voluntary spirit and so many people who are willing to give of their time to assist with that. I want to pay tribute to that, and that has a very important role.

A lot of what needs to be done in this area is a lot more specialised and specific than that. It relates to focusing on those young people who are most at risk. I have to say that I can be critical of An Garda Síochána at times but particularly in my own area in Cork city, there was always a tremendous focus on community gardaí. In my own neighbourhood, Togher, we had a succession of really excellent community gardaí, including Paul Hyde, Michael Collins and various others now following in their footsteps. They set a really high standard. What they did, and I could see it myself at first hand to be honest, was build a trusting relationship with young people that some other members of the Garda may not have been able to develop. There was a sense that, "Whatever about the gardaí, Michael Collins is sound anyway". That relationship and building of trust has a really beneficial impact.

In the context of the case referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, yesterday - I will not go into the specifics of any individual case - I read an interesting article in The Irish Timesaround the time of that particular incident in west Dublin. It was a long and interesting article written by Conor Gallagher of The Irish Timesthat spoke at length about how the relationship between some of the young people in that part of west Dublin and those from new Irish communities had been built up and was then allowed to drift. It was allowed to drift because of the lack of investment in community gardaí. A lot of good work that had been built up had subsequently been lost. That is noteworthy. In other places, maybe, some of that work has not been lost, because we have continued to invest in community gardaí and community policing.

The youth diversion projects are an essential part of that work and again I have seen that they do absolutely crucial work. There are young people I know - they are a bit older now - who would not be in the position they are in now, except that they had that chance through the youth diversion project and changed the course of where they were going. That is crucially important.

I want to make two specific points here. I have ended up with slightly more time than I thought I had. First, the point was made to me that the youth diversion project has a kind of cut-off at the age of 18. People who are working with those young people say that it would be potentially highly beneficial to be able to continue to work with those people until they are 22 or 24, and transitioning into the workplace. I am certainly not, by any manner of means, dismissing the points made by Deputy Lawless regarding doli incapax.

Of course adults should be subject to the full rigours of the law, but that is different from ensuring that the people who are in the project can continue to get supported as they progress towards employment, third level, apprenticeships or whatever they might go on to do, and to make sure they can make that transition. The cut-off at 18 is a problem.

The final point I want to make - the Minister of State might take note of it – relates to the town of Carrigaline in Cork, which is in my constituency. In the last census it had about 16,000 people. Almost one in three, or 5,000, of the town's population were under 18. There is a youth diversion project in that area – the Heron project, which is very good but it does not have a premises of its own. An awful lot of the cohort of 5,000 are younger, including infants and small children. Carrigaline is a fantastic town with great community spirit but no matter how good a town is, when one has that many young people it will present challenges. We must ensure the youth diversion project is properly funded and supported. That means a premises of its own to support the work Michael Collins, Austin and others are doing in that area to make sure there is a real focus to the work with the young people in that town. I urge the Minister of State to please consider that project if the application comes to his desk.

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