Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

As the Taoiseach said, the schools are doing a great job. It is mainly female teachers in primary schools, and they are the ones who are getting misogynistic abuse at sixth-class level. We have had different debates about that. The Taoiseach mentioned the community safety partnerships. I wish they would hurry up and get them set up because there is a deficit there, including in communities that are not designated as disadvantaged but have areas of disadvantage within them. They need to be widespread to cover that area.

I am a big believer in early years education because, as the HighScope Perry Preschool Project proves, every €1 invested gives a €17 return. We need to tackle the causes but, equally, the parents of a child who has been attacked or a pregnant lady, for example, who has been attacked will want to know what the consequences are. Sometimes these guys are parading themselves on social media and there could be 11 or 12 incidents before anything happens. There needs to be tougher, on-the-spot type of stuff, whether it is curfews, seizing scooters, seizing PlayStations or fining their parents. We need to add that into the mix so that they know there are first-hand repercussions rather than waiting a year to get through the system.

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