Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Gogarty and members of the Independent Technical Group for tabling this motion on antisocial behaviour. I am very aware of the impact that antisocial behaviour - many times it is criminal behaviour - has on individuals living in local communities. Regrettably, it appears to be the case that significant numbers of people who are engaged in antisocial behaviour, or the criminal behaviour I was talking about, are under the age of 18, which we refer to as children in our law. Notwithstanding that, the effects of antisocial behaviour are significant and the effects of criminal activity by children can be very specific and significant. It can result in people suffering from physical violence, theft of personal property, destruction of shared amenities or spaces and more hidden harms including individual or collective trauma, reluctance to report future incidents to the authorities for fear of retaliation and diminished feelings of pride or acceptance in one's local community.

That was very apparent to me from what Deputy Gogarty described as the instance he encountered in his community. It is important to emphasise, however, that the people involved in this type of behaviour are a small minority of people. I accept that their impact can be significant but in general most people in Ireland, and indeed most people under 18 years of age, are respectful and they recognise that Ireland should be, and remains, a safe community. We have a situation in Ireland where it is a pretty peaceful country. People might ask, "Where do you get that statistic from?" I get it from a global index of peacefulness throughout the world. The index that came out for 2025 indicated that Ireland was second in terms of peacefulness after Iceland. Notwithstanding this, I am conscious that this is no comfort to people who are subjected to consistent antisocial behaviour or criminal activity. It is for that reason the Government is very determined to tackle antisocial behaviour. The reason we are not opposing this motion is that very many of the proposals set forward by Deputy Gogarty in his motion are proposals we agree with and which we will seek to implement through the programme for Government.

It is important to point out that many things are being done to ensure that we can get on top of this issue of antisocial behaviour and criminal activity by people under 18 years of age or slightly over that age. As mentioned by Deputy Fitzmaurice, the most effective way of ensuring we have safe communities is to have a highly visible Garda presence in our communities. I am pleased to say that recruitment of members into the force is going in the right direction. I was at a passing-out ceremony in Templemore in August where 154 new recruits passed out. When we go up there in November, we are going to get to 200 recruits passing out then. Twice already this year, the intake into Templemore has been around the figure of 200. If I can get 200 as an intake into Templemore four or even five times a year, we will find ourselves getting the numbers up significantly in An Garda Síochána. At present we have 14,250 in the force. I want to see us get to 15,000. If we can get the good recruitment up and we get around 200 coming in from each intake, that will be very significant. I heard what Deputy Collins said about west Cork. In many instances he can blame his colleague behind him, Deputy O'Flynn, because 20 gardaí went to Cork city from the recruits who came out in August.

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