Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is clear there is a lot of work to be done to have proper youth services in place across the entire State. The Children Act states that a juvenile should not be in the criminal justice system, and only as a last resort or for a very serious crime. That is absolutely appropriate but the big issue in my experience has been resourcing. That comes into everything. We can have all the perfect plans in the world and all of the legislation but unless is resourced and unless we have gardaí to provide the service and to liaise with all of the other services out, including youth services, mental health services and everything else, we will go nowhere. That is the big issue we need to grapple with.

I will bring something I raised a number of years ago to the Minister of State's attention. I raised a case in my own constituency of a young girl who was a victim of a serious sexual assault. A number of young men, who were juveniles at the time, were clearly identified in respect of that. What happened was they were diverted into the youth diversion programme. That young girl was extremely upset. Her family was extremely upset. They were not dealt with properly and I understand that is not the only case in the State where this has happened and the youth diversion programme has been used, in what I consider and anyone objective looking at it, in a most inappropriate manner. These young men who engaged in a very serious sexual assault were in the eyes of the victim let off scot-free, and the victim and her family had a serious issue with that. That needs to be examined.

I have written to the Minister about this case on a number of occasions and I know there has been some effort to examine and review the youth diversion programme, particularly in respect of sex crimes. I would like the Minister of State to take note of and examine this closely because it was a serious issue for that family and I know there are others in a similar predicament.

At the end of the day the youth diversion programme can, and should, work very well if it is properly resourced. The point needs to be made clearly that we cannot have a situation where the programme is used inappropriately or wrongly and a lot of that comes down to proper governance and regulation. I understand that has been missing up to now as youth diversion programmes have been used across the State in an ad hoc manner. That needs to change and there needs to be proper governance and proper resources put into that system.

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