Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The work being done across the Department of Justice is not just focused on changing laws, supporting the Garda and the work it does; it also looks at penal policy reform and how we can stop this cycle of reoffending and get to the root causes, and that is about much more than the Garda. We are introducing what are called community safety partnerships. They look at the response to crime and antisocial behaviour in our communities, acknowledging that not just the Garda, the courts and the Prison Service have a role to play, local authorities also have a role. It is about education and bringing community groups together. It is about the community itself identifying what the issues that need to be addressed are and how we can get to the root causes, particularly in communities where there are particular hardships that result in the type of antisocial behaviour and criminality we see.

There is a huge amount of work under way looking at the tough response and making sure that where people commit crimes, there is a sentence to match that, while also acknowledging that for many people in our prisons and in these situations, there are challenges and challenging backgrounds they come from. We need to always try to address the root causes; otherwise we will never stop the cycle of this type of behaviour.

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