Tom Brabazon (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue. I have a lot of sympathy for what many of the speakers said, in particular the contribution Deputy O'Flynn made today. There is a lot of youth crime, certainly in the constituency I represent. There are young lads going around on scramblers and e-bikes, masked up so their identities cannot be known. They are effectively untouchable; they are above the law because they are not being chased by An Garda Síochána. When they are pursued, they are viewed as being too young to be prosecuted, notwithstanding the fact that they are behaving like adults and are causing major disruption to local communities, certainly in the area I represent. I could tell stories to keep the Minister of State here for several hours about the effect this horrendous behaviour has on communities.

I would not be a big fan of Tony Blair's, but we have to look at crime from two perspectives. We have to be tough on crime - I am all for that - but we equally have to be tough on the causes of crime. It is clear that when I look across my constituency at the hot spots where we have high figures of youth offending, these are certain areas that have been neglected for long numbers of years. In some of those areas where serious investment has been put in over the years, though, we still have that behaviour, so it is not all about investing. It is a combination of investment and supporting sports clubs, youth clubs, drama groups, art, you name it, but anything that gets kids together so they can enjoy one another's company and not feel like they are under constant peer pressure.

We have to consider influences. I believe it was Deputy Gogarty who mentioned role models. Many of the role models people are seeing now are online, including TikTok, and some of the behaviours we are seeing involve children in groups going out and assaulting other children and adults. This is happening for the purpose of making TikTok videos and so on.

Youth diversion is one part of a whole jigsaw of approaches we need to make. We certainly need to be tough on the causes of crime, but we equally need to be very tough on the crime itself.

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