Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Every day, more and more gardaí are resigning and retiring. Every day, gardaí are being attacked in this country. There is a breakdown in the criminal justice system which is leading to a situation where some criminals feel they can get away with murder with impunity if necessary. That is a very serious issue.

I will repeat the core points on this issue. We certainly want to make sure children are not treated the same as adults in terms of grievous crimes. Children must be given opportunities to reform their ways and be diverted from the criminal justice system, but there is a weakness in this law in terms of how it sets out exactly how we are going to treat murder carried out by people under the age of 18. There is also a weakness in this Government's whole approach to children who have multiple convictions for serious crime and how we can have a penalty that at least pushes those children away from that type of activity and keeps citizens safe in this country.

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