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

I have spoken about this before. Diverting our young people away from getting involved in criminal activity is a key priority for me. I am a fan of prevention and looking at ways of offering better alternatives to young people before they end up in the system. I have worked with a lot of Carlow services and can only say that they do a marvellous job. They work hard. Unfortunately, there are crime rates among our young people and we can change that. We can work and invest in communities, outreach, drug programmes and family resource centres to give young people a chance.

I spoke to the Minister of State about a community hub on the Tullow Road, which needs a building. There will be two full-time staff who will work with the people in the community. There is a fabulous centre for Carlow youth services but it now needs to expand to the Tullow Road, a site owned by Carlow County Council. I have gone to the Department. Due to the fact it is a hub, there seems to be a grey area in terms of exactly where the funding is coming from. My understanding is Carlow County Council has more than €1 million for the project but it is now seeking over €1 million from the Department. The cost of the build for this hub will be a little over €2 million. For 35 years, the area has had a lot of high-density housing developments. Unfortunately, little or no social, cultural, green or economic infrastructure has been built to accommodate the increased population. It is a huge issue. We build many houses but there is nothing for young people. That has become a huge concern for me.

The national planning framework, NPF, and the regional spatial and economic strategy, RSES, place a strong emphasis on achieving and maintaining sustainable and inclusive communities to contribute to a high quality of life. That is important. It is about quality of life and everybody working together. We have to get to children before they offend. We need to invest in youth and community work. We also have to work with communities.

As other speakers have said, the most important people in our communities are volunteers, the people who give of their time for sports - if I mention one sport I might leave out another - or youth services or whatever. We have such good people. I can speak on behalf of the people of County Carlow. There are excellent people who give up their time to bring children to matches, volunteer at matches or organise events. I have attended many field days in the past few weeks. I am delighted to attend. All of the children are participating in them and enjoying it. They might play a match or go on bouncy castles. That is what it is all about. It is all about prevention. I want to welcome that. It is about supporting and engaging children and keeping them away from crime.

I welcome the youth justice strategy. We have to tackle crime at all levels and in all areas of our society. We need to go into communities where there are high rates of criminality and examine the range of issues that affect communities, including the needs of our young people, the opportunities available to them and the root causes that lead to criminal activity taking hold.

A key focus of this strategy is considering how youth justice policy might be more closely aligned to other child and youth policies and the promotion of community and local development. A key priority is prevention and early intervention is necessary to bring together all of the relevant agencies and programmes. I am a firm believer in everybody working together. All of the different agencies, Departments and services need to sit at the table and work together to see what we can do in communities, in particular communities most at risk and where children are vulnerable. I want to welcome this.

The reason I spoke today is because the youth strategy is important. It is always said that prevention is better than cure. We now have to find that prevention. I know families where a child took a wrong road or whatever. We also need support for families and be able to help the family of a child who may have taken a wrong road. We need to work more with the Garda. I am a firm believer in the Garda. We only have two community gardaí in Carlow town. The Minister of State has told me that is not within his remit but we need to recruit more gardaí. We need community gardaí on the beat and going into areas that are vulnerable. I call for more gardaí for County Carlow.

We held a community meeting recently in Tullow, another area which is crying out for gardaí. I ask that there be talks between the Minister of State and other Departments. I want to welcome the Minister, Deputy McEntee, back from maternity leave. We need more gardaí on the beat, more community gardaí and more involvement. I pay tribute to all of the gardaí and the work they do. I want to pay tribute to all the volunteers and the great work they do. I welcome the strategy.

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