Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I take the opportunity to wish the Minister well. There is no shortage of issues to deal with, whether we are talking about justice or migration. In fairness, the Minister has already said that there is much work to be done to put a proper migration management system in play.

We are still dealing with the outworkings of Brexit and the outworkings for Ireland of partition, a constant evil that will not be dealt with until we have a united Ireland. We need a Government that is going to take the necessary moves or we will constantly be dealing with anomalies like this. I believe everyone here is supportive of opting into negotiations on a youth experience scheme. Everyone understands the idea behind these youth mobility and experience schemes. First and foremost, they are about mobility but they are also about experience, opportunities and skills and can be particularly beneficial for those from disadvantaged areas. That is a piece of work that needs to be done, above and beyond this scheme. I would also highlight the fact that there is real work to be done on youth diversion. We are all aware of the huge issues of crime, drugs and youths becoming involved and anything that can be done from a diversion point of view should be done. In that context, I commend the work that is done by the High Voltage youth diversion team that works out of a house in Cox's Demesne and the diversion team working in Muirhevnamore, Dundalk. While steps have been taken with regard to early intervention, from my point of view they are not early enough and there also have to be wider interventions involving families as well. We also need mental health and addiction supports, which are sadly lacking at this point in time. I would also commend the work that has been done lately by An Garda Síochána. I have played, very badly, in the Garda late night leagues, run in tandem with Dundalk FC. It is great for everyone, apart from anyone who got a bad tackle from me but I do not think there were cameras involved and nobody has made any complaints at this point in time. We are talking here about stuff that has a real impact on young people's lives and gives them an opportunity. Beyond that, we have the Greentown project. We have seen that in operation in several places and we know it is being rolled out across the State. We need to see more of this. The idea is to engage with those young people who have fallen into criminal activity and who are being used and abused by criminals and drug dealers and facilitate removing them from that situation. We all know of the high costs, both socially and from a monetary point of view, in relation to that.

We have a particular issue in relation to safety. I refer here to disorganised, chaotic crime, often related to mental health issues, that sometimes falls to gardaí who do not have the capacity to deal with it. We do not necessarily have the framework to deal with this. I know this crosses into the jurisdiction of others but it is an issue that needs to be looked at in the context of safety.

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