Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party) | Oireachtas source

This is an important matter to speak on. One of the marvellous things about our jobs as elected Members of this House is that we engage with the community on so many different levels and we see such fantastic young people and organisations giving back to society. They are led by many community leaders. Some of them have gone on to become members of their local councils and Members of this House too. Many come from community backgrounds, a bit like Deputy Collins I think. He started off with perhaps about 30 organisations and this grew to approximately 120 organisations by the time he entered this House. I refer to giving back to communities. We see some tremendous people out there. We also see, however, that an awful lot of work now goes into setting up youth organisations, from drama to any sports. The amount of company regulation and paperwork it is necessary to go through is extremely cumbersome for many organisations. We talk in this House about getting people involved in sports, dramas, new types of clubs and new types of energy, and occupying them. Looking at the Icelandic model, which brought down antisocial behaviour from about 40% to approximately 3%, it was about engagement. It is about taking away boredom and giving people opportunities to do something after hours after school.

My colleague, Deputy Paul Lawless, mentioned the drug epidemic. It has not escaped Cork either. We have a situation in Cork where children as young as eight are being used as drug mules. Children as young as eight are knocking on doors and threatening people because they cannot be prosecuted. They are getting a couple of bags of sweets or a can of Coke after as their reward for threatening Mary and telling her they are going to burn out her car. This is what is going on in parts of this country. It is happening not just in Cork but also in Mayo, Dublin and everywhere.

It is about time we stopped wringing our hands in here. There are Members of this House on the left side who almost have an idea of hug a thug and everything will be alright, and we will give them an antisocial behaviour order, ASBO, and it is all because "God, they came from a tough background". We have to make parents responsible as well, and there has to be a financial repercussion for parents whose children are involved in criminal activity and cause criminal damages. I am sick to death of going to community meetings and hearing "It is not my Johnny" or "It is not my Mary" and looking at photographs of them. I had a mother tell me, "I only dropped them to the cemetery because they were only having a couple of cans". That is antisocial behaviour. That is giving a child alcohol. That is unacceptable. We need to have the powers in this State for the Garda to prosecute parents who are indulging their children in antisocial behaviour and activity.

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