Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)

As the Minister of State said, this is the last Bill to be taken prior to the recess so I want to take this opportunity to thank all of the Oireachtas staff for all their work over the year, and let them know I will not be taking my full ten minutes and they might get out a little bit earlier. I am happy to speak on this important Bill. I thank my colleagues Deputies Quinlivan and Daly for the work that has gone into it. I am the Sinn Féin spokesperson for community safety and youth justice, and I want to see more approaches taken to reduce crime and recidivism. Restorative justice is one of the ways we are able to achieve this.

Restorative justice brings the perpetrator of a crime face to face with the victim of that crime. It allows the victim to question the motives of the person and ask why they did it, why they chose them and whether they feel guilty for what they have done. It can be very empowering for the victim to be able to look the person in the eye and pick apart what they did and why they did it. It can also be life-altering for the person who committed the crime in the first place to have to address somebody they have hurt or harmed directly. It humanises the victim and helps a person to see the impact the crime has had on the victim.

We know restorative justice has helped to reduce reoffending. This is why the Sinn Féin Bill is so important. It aims to increase opportunities to refer somebody to restorative justice by creating obligations on justice professionals to make these referrals. It is very similar to what happens in the North. It is very important to put on the record that the Bill will not force anybody to take part in restorative justice. There is no pressure. People can make this decision themselves. It will give them the opportunity to avail of it on their journey through the justice system.

The benefit of encouraging more people to engage in restorative justice practices is that we can reduce the number of people who end up in our prisons which, as the Minister of State knows, are seriously over capacity at present. As I mentioned previously, we can also reduce the rate of recidivism. The Minister of State mentioned amending legislation with regard to children. I am happy to work with him and table amendments on young people going into restorative justice practices. If we are serious about reducing crime and making our communities safe, we need to embed restorative justice practices in our justice system. I welcome the fact the Government will not oppose the Bill.

Dr. Ian Marder has been mentioned. I spoke to him recently to get an understanding of restorative justice practices and I thank him for this. I heard the Minister of State, Dr. Marder and our spokesperson on justice, Deputy Carthy, on the radio recently. A commitment was made, which I do not think the Minister of State referenced in his statement, to a 10% increase on a yearly basis in the number of people using restorative justice. It is welcome that the target is there but we need to be a bit more ambitious. I have worked in organisations that practise restorative justice.

Even though I was not directly involved, through youth organisations I have seen at first hand the benefits it has not only for the victim of the crime, but also for the community and for the young person involved in crime. It leads to positive change.

The Minister of State mentioned youth diversion projects. That is really welcome. We had a debate earlier and the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, talked about having youth justice projects right across the State. I hope the Government sticks to that commitment because it is really needed. We need targeted youth diversion projects in our areas. In my own area, we have recently had upheaval as the result of a feud. We could have done with a properly resourced youth diversion project in the area, which could have dealt with the issue. We will be looking to progress that as well.

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