Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Independent Group for giving me the time to speak on this important issue. The youth justice strategy was roundly commended on its launch in 2021. The Irish Penal Reform Trust, IPRT, hailed it at the time as having "a strong and welcome focus on diversion, prevention and early intervention, underpinned by children’s rights and the use of detention as a last resort". In my constituency of Clare, we have a fantastic youth service and the team that runs the Garda youth diversion project provides an outstanding outlet for many young people from communities across County Clare. I take this opportunity to commend them sincerely on their work.

I also commend all the people in agencies in County Clare who work with young people in the areas of early intervention, diversion, prevention and, in particular, rehabilitation. The work I have witnessed first-hand in some of the most deprived communities in County Clare has proved to prevent young people from falling into the wrong circles. I would go so far as to say it has saved their lives. These people are incredible and the work they do is fantastic, but they are not being backed up by adequate resourcing. I will speak more about this aspect in a moment.

We need holistic and wraparound services. As many Deputies have said, we need to go back to basics and look at the lack of recreational spaces we have for young people, especially in the specific pinch points of those in their young to mid teens and those focused outside of physical activities. We were all 14 once and I am sure we all remember the cold winter evenings and having to walk around town when we were around that age because there was nowhere for young people to go. We would have given our left legs to sit in a youth café and chat with our mates instead of being stuck out in the cold. That was fine back in the day but, unfortunately, teenagers walking the streets now out of boredom are the easiest targets for organised crime to recruit new foot soldiers. It has become more common every day and, indeed, it gets more worrying every day.

I commend the work the Government has done with respect to robust legislation against the grooming of children and young people into criminality. To poison the mind of a child, as I am sure the Minister of State will agree, is unforgivable. I noted that Deputy Catherine Murphy mentioned a conversation with a young constituent some years ago where he said, "You have to get into trouble to do interesting things". I have had many similar conversations with my young constituents. We need more services for young people in our communities and we need to listen to them in planning those services. Every team DEIS school in this country should have a youth café in its area. Having a space for young people that is safe and supervised and open two or three nights a week would have a massive effect in respect of taking kids off the streets and out of harm's way. It is a measure I hope many colleagues in the House will support. I will also mention what young people are exposed to when they are walking the streets. It is not just about who they interact with or their vulnerabilities in respect of others, but what they are seeing. We know the numbers of homeless people and people sleeping rough have increased and young people are being exposed to the hardships and difficulties these individuals are facing.

I also wish to talk about the new Garda operational model and how it is failing young people and failing in preventing crime in our communities. In particular, it is a complete disgrace that the Kilrush division in my constituency of Clare has lost its superintendent. It is a scathing indictment of an apathetic policy which flies in the face of the socioeconomic needs of communities in rural Ireland. It is disgraceful that this has happened in an area like the Kilrush division, which has the only two unemployment black spots in my constituency, a subject I have already raised many times in this House. While I welcome the work done on the grooming legislation, this means little to communities in County Clare that have not seen one additional garda. Even worse is the fact that the county lost nine gardaí and a superintendent in the last three years.

In speaking about the Garda and this whole area, I will also say that no young person under 18, or perhaps even 20, should end up in a cell as a result of a non-violent, first-time offence. More contemporary research exists than would fill this House to support the idea that prevention is better than cure but if prevention is not possible, then conviction should be avoidable in such an instance. We know that once people have a conviction, it limits and restricts their opportunities for years to come, including even the organisations they will be able to engage with in a voluntary capacity. It really restricts opportunities for people to grow, gain confidence and engage in society in a meaningful way.

There are now roughly four prisoners to a cell here. Our prisons are severely overcrowded, which we all know. We must see all agencies working with young people. An Garda Síochána and relevant voluntary groups must form task forces in every county in the State to keep young people out of prisons and the school of criminality. We must examine restorative justice. I was sorry to hear there were fewer restorative justice referrals in 2022 than in 2019. I am hopeful this approach will be developed more in future. We can all say there are far worse things in the world than a 17-year-old getting caught smoking a joint.

Generational poverty and breaking the cycle are issues many of my colleagues have already spoken about. Deputy Chris Andrews and I had a Bill before the House a few months ago concerned with socioeconomic rights and discrimination based on socioeconomic background. In my research for that Bill, I spoke to representatives of many fantastic organisations that are members of the Add the 10th Alliance. We covered a wide array of topics in those conversations. They informed me of the significance of their Add the 10th campaign and how it would positively impact every sector and perhaps Departments if it was enacted.

The Government put a stay on our Bill of nine months, which was a huge disappointment. Had that Bill progressed then, we would now be closer to the incredibly significant step of ensuring that socioeconomic status and accent were added as a tenth ground for discrimination. This would have sent a strong message that discrimination based on those grounds would not be tolerated. It would also have created the space for the necessary national conversation that is needed on this matter and the need to remove the stigma associated with living in a particular area or having a particular accent.

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This will be positive for all our youth, as a government that tolerates discrimination on those grounds is holding society back from progressing with equality and inclusivity at its core.

We know communities that have a lower socioeconomic status are profiled and the youth in those communities are far more likely to be policed than those from more affluent areas. This fact is not lost on our youth and adds to societal division and negative attitudes.

Nelson Mandela famously said that education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. We are seeing kids drop out of school every year because they have no guidance on what to do with their futures. Moreover, 91% of guidance counsellors report not having enough time to meet all of the students under their remit and 75% report referral issues. For students who are lucky enough to be able to meet their guidance counsellor, mental healthcare has completely overtaken career decision-making as the top reason young people want to meet a guidance counsellor. It is very concerning. The kids are not all right and services are failing them. I acknowledge the recruitment and retention crisis but there is no excuse for children and young people falling through the cracks, just as 140 children who engaged with CAMHS midwest did last year.

In conclusion, I broadly support the strategy but there are missed opportunities. I hope we can all work across the House so that no young person is left behind or allowed to fall through the cracks again. I will finish as I started, by commending each and every person in County Clare and across the State who gives their time to our young people in the voluntary sector through sport, the GAA, CoderDojo, youth clubs and Foróige, to name a few, as well as those who work incredibly hard with young people to give the right path and steer them towards the best future possible. Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí.

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