Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Paul Gogarty for bringing forward this motion and giving us an opportunity to discuss antisocial behaviour. I may not agree with everything in the motion but I do agree with its sentiments. Basically, something needs to be done to address antisocial behaviour.

I agree with the Minister when he said that a lot of the stuff Deputy Gogarty spoke about was not antisocial behaviour but actually criminal activity. The phrase "antisocial behaviour" is often used to describe a myriad of low- to mid-level criminal activity. I want to be clear: low- to mid-level criminal activity is not antisocial behaviour. Drug dealing is not antisocial behaviour; it is criminal activity. Intimidation is not antisocial behaviour; it is a crime. Driving scramblers without tax and insurance on public roads is not antisocial behaviour; it is a crime. Shoplifting is not antisocial behaviour; it is a crime. Destruction of public playgrounds is not antisocial behaviour; it is a crime. Until we start treating these offences as crimes with real consequences, I am afraid there will just be an endless cycle of lawlessness in our communities.

We can deal with the cause of this criminal activity later but right now we must deal with the effect. We have too few gardaí in our communities. We have too few gardaí to prevent crime and to prevent young people from becoming involved in crime. We have too few gardaí in community policing and in roads policing. I listened to the Minister talking about recruitment and what he has done over the last while but the figures I have do not match up. For example, the figures I received in May of this year tell me there are 140 fewer gardaí in the Dublin metropolitan region than there were in 2020. The numbers are going down.

There was a lot of fanfare, when the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, came into office, about his recruitment drive. I saw him at the National Ploughing Championships at the weekend doing it again. It is all welcome but we are not seeing the results. Nothing has been done too in terms of increasing the number of gardaí available to police the streets of Dublin. In fact, since the Minister came into office in December, there has only been three additional gardaí in Dublin. The Minister promised 5,000 new gardaí over the lifetime of the Government and in year one he is already behind. Of the 1,000 gardaí he promised this year, even optimistic estimates will say he will be lucky to get 650, so we are already behind. This is simply not good enough. It is putting our communities at risk, and the failure to recruit new officers will inevitably lead to more overworked and overstretched gardaí leaving the force.

I was at a meeting during the week with a residents' association in Lucan who told me their concerns regarding criminal activity in their area. What I found out at that meeting was that there are now only four community gardaí in Ronanstown police station. This police station covers a vast area, including some of the areas with the highest disadvantage. The community gardaí in my area, who I know because there are only four of them, so it is very hard not to know them, do Trojan work but there are simply not enough of them. Radical overhaul of Garda recruitment is needed, including opening a second training centre, which will increase the recruitment to 1,500 gardaí a year. Is this something the Government will commit to?

Currently, the only detention centre in the State for young people is Oberstown Children Detention Campus. It is constantly at capacity. It is that much at capacity that it is like a tinderbox. We have seen and I have heard reports this year of violence against staff members. It only has the capacity to hold 46 young offenders. The consequence of it being at capacity is that young people who have committed serious crimes are being turned away and released back into our communities without the wraparound supports and the rehabilitation they need. Young people who probably should have been remanded in custody because of the serious nature of their crimes are given bail because of the capacity issue. Information I got very recently says that over the past three years, almost 3,000 crimes have been committed where the suspect was a young person already on bail. This figure is far too high. Our justice system needs to work better for our young people but also for our communities so everybody can feel safe.

A breakdown of some of those crimes committed by young people who were on bail is very stark. There were 61 incidents of attempts or threats to murder, assaults, harassment or related offences. This is when the suspect is a young person who was out on bail. I have always said that detention should be the last resort when it comes to young people, but when it comes to serious crime, what we are doing at the moment is simply not working.

One solution, which the Minister touched on, is enhancing the bail supervision scheme. I have seen first hand in my own area how this works and it just needs to be properly funded. There is also an argument to be made, and I would like the Minister to take this on board as well, that it should not be led by An Garda Síochána because the gardaí should be out on the streets policing our communities.

However, it could be led by either probation services or youth justice services to free up gardaí. Then again, they have to be properly resourced to do that job. If proper investment is made now in youth justice, probation, the bail supervision scheme and restorative justice services, it could stop the next generation from progressing from antisocial behaviour into being hardened criminals. However, we need to invest in the here and now. What our communities need here and now is more investment in gardaí and more gardaí on the streets so that we can keep our communities safe.

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