Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to discuss the issue of antisocial and criminal behaviour in our communities. The reality is that every community experiences antisocial behaviour and criminal activity, some far more than others. Some of it is quite low level with noise and boisterous behaviour but in other cases, it is really serious criminal behaviour. Not a single TD on either side of this Chamber would disagree that we need more gardaí. We hear it constantly in this Chamber. We need them on the streets, working in communities to deal with this type of behaviour.

I have raised this point on many occasions and I will raise it again. It is about a specialised anti-scrambler unit to tackle the scourge of dangerous driving that has led to dozens of deaths and hundreds of life-changing injuries over the years. These units exist in Britain and in the European Union and they should exist here in Ireland. I cannot understand why, in 2025, we do not have any attempt to deal with this scourge. Every day we see in our streets young people putting our own lives and other people's lives in danger. Senior gardaí and gardaí on the streets tell us consistently that they are not allowed to deal with this. They are not allowed to chase them or engage with them in any form. Young people who are doing this therefore feel completely empowered to do whatever they want. Yet, the Government and senior gardaí sit on their hands.

Another issue relates to electric bikes. We see them all over the place, they can be rented but yet, gardaí are still cycling on pedal cycles. I live in a very large constituency in Dublin West and we still have gardaí peddling around on bikes when young people are on electric bikes taunting them. They absolutely taunt them every day. When are we going to catch up with the technology that is around?

Another example is drones. In Dublin 15, as I am sure Deputies are aware, we can order lunch or order a coffee and have it delivered to our house. The technology is absolutely incredible. Leaving aside the issue of noise and other concerns that we might have, the technology is there. For two years, I have questioned gardaí in relation to the Garda's capacity around drones. Eventually I was told 12 drones were bought and that some gardaí were trained on them. However, this is a reply I got from An Garda Síochána:

I am informed by Garda management that members of Garda air support unit were previously trained in the use of drones as part of the drone evaluation project. The evaluation concluded in 2023 and the drones are not currently in operational use pending legislative clarity.

So I can get my coffee and my lunch but gardaí cannot use drones because there is no legislative clarity. What a ridiculous answer. The Civil Defence uses them, as do the Army and the Navy. In fact, I can ring a specialist company to check out my roof to see whether it is leaking and where it is leaking. Yet, gardaí are blocked from using them or claim that there is no legislative clarity. This is another excuse from Garda management rather than helping and supporting the officers on the ground to do their job using technology. Any strategy to tackle antisocial behaviour is doomed to fail if it is not co-ordinated, if it is not multi-agency and if it has not got the backing of the community. If we are serious about tackling antisocial behaviour we should be talking about a massive investment in youth facilities, purpose-built dedicated spaces with highly qualified and trained youth workers. We need dedicated outreach youth teams to go to where the people are, to talk to them, to work with them and to engage with them in relation to any antisocial or criminal behaviour. Gardaí are not youth workers. They are not trained and they should not be doing that job. Let us free them up to do the job they are trained to do and that is to deal with serious criminal behaviour.

We need much more funding for early intervention with families who are experiencing difficulties or where children have experienced trauma. Young people are amazing. Every one of them should be and must be given the opportunity to reach their potential. If they do not, and unfortunately engage in criminal or antisocial behaviour, they must face the consequences. However, nothing I have seen in the 30 years of my community work, of professional work with young people and families, with those in addiction and with young people engaged in criminality convinces me that this Government or any Government I have seen in those 30 years, is or has been really serious about tackling criminal or antisocial behaviour. To explain why this is so, when the crash happened in 2007, 2008 and 2009 what were the first things that were absolutely decimated? Every single community, voluntary, charity organisation that deals with young people or addiction, that deals with early school leaving, were crushed. Yet, the bankers, developers and bondholders did not suffer. We know where the priorities are. We know where they lie. It is now time to deal with it. There are solutions out there. People out there are highly trained, highly professional people. Give them money, funding and the facilities to do that job and let us deal with those issues and help and support young people at the same time.

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