Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As I said earlier, the Garda recruitment targets are continually missed. We are faced with a potential net loss of gardaí this year despite the promises of an additional 1,000 officers. The workers and residents in the north inner city deserve better. I hear what the Minister says about the scrambler legislation she has introduced, and I understand that the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill was moved by Government Deputies - in response, it has to be said, to an earlier Private Members' Bill by Deputy Paul Donnelly, Deputy Mark Ward, who is with me here today, and a number of other Sinn Féin Deputies. In addition, I welcome the legislation that is proposed relating to the criminalisation of people who groom children to commit crimes, but again, that was on foot of and followed on from the hard work which was done by more of our Dublin Deputies, not just on tackling crime with legislation. This has been a great disappointment, and I think we can say that there has not been great progress on restorative justice. Dr. Ian Marder, who wrote recently in The Journal, outlined that, excluding the youth diversion programme, there were 713 referrals in 2019 but only 413 in 2020. A proper restorative justice system needs to be introduced as soon as possible.

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