Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I was a professional youth worker for many years. I have spoken about this with the Minister of State in the House previously. I will jump at any opportunity to speak about young people's lives and experiences. I just hope that there is nobody in charge of or responsible for youth justice or youth crime scratching their heads as to why we are where we are in society. It is fairly straightforward, actually. Without trying to sound too simplistic, young people's behaviour, circumstances and consequences are caused by the communities, societies and environments that they live in and grow up in. We all acknowledge that. If that were a starting point for addressing the structural inequality and the cyclical poverty that young people face, and asking why as opposed to what, it would be a phenomenal starting point in trying to understand a little better why young people who engage in criminal behaviour do so. There is always a why, there is always a person and there is always someone who, deep down, just wants hope, wants leadership, wants a different story sometimes. That is where we can step in and be those leaders, provide that hope and provide the circumstances in which young people can thrive and achieve their potential in communities.

When I was a youth justice worker in Newbridge Youth Project, the CAN project in County Kildare, with Adele, Ciara and Olivia, we genuinely did life-changing work. It changed our lives as youth workers and it changed young people's lives. I can personally guarantee that if every community had a professional youth project or a youth justice project, we would see the outcomes for a generation of young people change overnight. A study done many years ago put an economic cost on that, whereby for every €1 we invested in young people's lives in different services, it saved the State multiples of that in the long run. I was a youth worker during the recession and I saw first hand the impact of those costs and cuts. We are still as a sector coming back and regaining confidence and trust in the future of the sector. I implore the Government to do whatever it can to maximise professional youth work services and Garda youth diversion services.

The last point I will make is about restorative justice. I would love to learn more about the Government's commitment to that. Is it possible to amend the Children Act 2001 to put some legislative support behind the Garda to empower JLOs to use that as much as possible?

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