James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I marvel at Deputy Boyd Barrett's success in naming all the clubs in his constituency. I will add Ranelagh Gaels, Clanna Gael, Templeogue and Synge Street to that list of clubs looking for pitches. In fairness, the point was well made. It is one most people in the House would agree with.

I will touch on three matters. The first is youth prevention. I am not talking about the diversion programme, when somebody is entered into that programme and a JLO is appointed. I am talking about avoiding young people engaging in criminality in the first place. The second issue I will talk about is the legislation, its operation and things that could be done to update it. The final matter I will touch on is the age of criminal responsibility.

There are some superb projects, outside of the diversion programme, that act in this area. The Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, will be very familiar with the St. Andrew's Resource Centre in my constituency, which does extraordinary work to bring young people from south and north inner-city areas together. They work on projects together and are brought on trips together to try to de-escalate where conflicts have arisen, especially among young people, including antisocial behaviour and other types of crime. These are run by amazing people and youth workers. These need to be funded and to continue to be funded, but there is a lack of lessons being learned at a national level regarding what is taking place at local level and how successful programmes could be emulated in other parts of the country. That prevention side is something the Minister of State should carry out a review into.

The legislation is very clear. Young people are entered into the diversion programme if they admit criminal responsibility. For people under the age of 18, no matter what crime they have committed, their file will be referred to the director of the juvenile diversion programme. The director has to make a decision on whether to admit that child to the programme, but an absolute statutory must is the child must admit to the crime he or she is alleged to have committed. One of the challenges of the programme is that while the legislation, which has been in place for a lengthy period, provides for regulations whereby the Minister can exclude certain offences that would not be eligible for the programme, no Minister has ever excluded any offences. In the annual review, for every single year of the monitoring of the diversion programme, the reports of the various offences of the thousands of children who have been diverted into the programme can be seen, which include very serious crimes such as homicide and sexual offences. The Minister should carry out a review into whether now is the time for regulations to be initiated that would exclude certain offences.

It is not appropriate that the director of the juvenile diversion programme is vested with the responsibility of determining, in the case of a person who is 18 or under and has killed somebody, whether he or she should be admitted into the programme. It should be left to the Director of Public Prosecutions to decide whether that person should be prosecuted or not. At the very least, that situation should be excluded and the Minister should make regulations in that regard.

The final matter I will touch on is the age of criminal responsibility, which has been 12 in Ireland for a long time.

There were commissions that talked about raising this. I go back to my first point, namely that if you talk to the people who act in the area of youth diversion, the one thing they will say is that they are dealing with younger and younger children. The reality is that unless it is a criminal matter, there is only so much An Garda Síochána can do. Many community gardaí go around to parents and talk about antisocial behaviour orders and what might happen. However, if a child is under the age of 12, there is not much An Garda Síochána can do.

In the UK, the age of criminal responsibility is ten. I am not suggesting that this is the route we should go down. However, in conjunction with identifying and fully funding the type of programmes at local level that work in terms of getting people out of crime, we have to take a serious look, from an operational point of view, at how we can ensure An Garda Síochána can engage with children who are below the age of criminal responsibility but who are being used as drug mules in some cases or who are involved in pernicious and consistent antisocial behaviour and who know they will not face arrest or charges because they are underage.

These are the matters that require review and consideration. I have asked the Minister to examine all three.

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