Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)

This record justice budget of over €6 billion reflects our strong commitment to build safe and secure communities. Youth justice has a crucial role to play in this. The significant increase of €7.3 million in youth justice funding which I have secured is a 22% increase and enables us to achieve comprehensive nationwide coverage of our network of youth diversion projects for the first time ever. The importance of this should not be understated. Youth diversion projects are on the front line. They tackle directly the causes of youth offending and antisocial behaviour.

From Rathkeale in County Limerick to Moyross and Limerick city, north and south inner city Dublin and towns like Ennis and Portlaoise, I have seen at first hand the impact that youth diversion projects and youth workers have on young people at risk of criminal behaviour. By directly engaging and preventing criminal and antisocial behaviour at an early stage, youth diversion projects reduce crime and give positive results to society. The significant increase in funding that I have secured means we can now reach young people in every part of the State.

Youth diversion works in the vast majority of cases but it cannot stop all incidents of antisocial or criminal behaviour. As such, it is important to also emphasise the additional investment in An Garda Síochána. The budget allows for 1,500 more people to join the Garda workforce next year, up to 1,000 gardaí, 200 Garda staff, and a doubling in the size of the Garda Reserve. To put that in context, 1,500 people is 8% of the entire Garda workforce. Every one of these additional men and women will increase the visibility of gardaí on our streets and in our villages and towns.

A 13% increase in the Garda budget provides for an additional 392,000 overtime hours, bringing the total number of funded overtime hours to 3.5 million. While we recruit more gardaí, this will meet the sustained demand for a visible and responsive policing response to support serious crime prevention and investigations. Budget 2026 allocates the most ever to the justice sector, reflecting our commitment to tackling youth offending and antisocial behaviour and keeping people safe in their communities.

I acknowledge the €390 million capital budget available to us, which will go towards many capital works, such as the finish and fit-out of the new Garda district headquarters in my constituency, in Newcastle West, and also to fund the ongoing planning of a new Garda station in Castletroy in Limerick city.

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