James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My colleague, the Minister for Justice, has informed the House about the record justice budget for 2024, which prioritises building stronger and safer communities. The future of our communities lies with our young people, and I warmly welcome the allocation of €33 million for youth justice, which is an increase of 10% or €3 million. This will have a significant impact on individual young people, their families and their communities. Youth justice projects have changed the lives of young people and have helped them to make better choices. They offer education, training and employment supports and provide fresh starts for those who may have had a difficult start to their lives. I am particularly pleased that with these additional funds we will be able, for the first time, to offer services across the entire country so that every young person might benefit from them. No young person is born to commit a crime. Time and circumstances often lead them to committing unacceptable behaviour. We owe it to them to give them a second chance in life. It also makes our communities safer if we can get them to behave in a more pro-social way. These funds also allow for increased weekend availability and will be able to assist those vulnerable children aged between 8 and 11. The funding will resource more measures targeted at supporting families, working with schools and those young people who have proven harder to engage. Since I have had responsibility in this area, funding has increased quite significantly.

With regard to gambling, we can see from the recent report of the ESRI that the scale of problem gambling in Ireland is ten times higher than research had previously shown. As many as one in 30 adults affected are known to be impacted by problem gambling. The consequences of this can be devastating for individuals, their families and their communities. The Gambling Regulation Bill 2022 is now awaiting Report Stage and I have no doubt that early next year we will commence a new era of modern, effective licensing and regulation of the gambling industry. It is long overdue. I am pleased that the establishment of the new authority will be funded by a doubling of the allocation to €4 million in 2024. This will support the CEO-designate, Ms Anne Marie Caulfield, in leading the vital work of the authority in building a robust regulatory and licensing regime to regulate gambling in person and online. In doing so, we will reduce the harm to our young people and people who are experiencing problem gambling.

Overall, the record allocation this year for the justice group of Votes gives us the resources we need to deliver on the programme for Government.

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