Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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The issue of community safety is something that I know is a top priority for the Members of this House. There is no doubt that supporting our young people, particularly those who need it most, will play a central part in achieving this goal. As the new Minister of State, I am filled with hope and optimism for what we can achieve together.

The measure of a safe community is how we care for each other and the most vulnerable in our society. How we care for our young people in particular is central to this goal. The youth justice strategy is a forward-thinking plan designed to address the unique challenges faced by young people in Ireland. At its core, it emphasises early intervention, prevention, family support and community engagement. It includes a number of key objectives aimed at promoting positive behavioural change. It is only by targeting this behaviour that we can break the cycle of young people reoffending.

We must all work towards seeking positive outcomes for young people who come into contact with the justice system. We are continuing vital work to implement our youth justice strategy. We have made a commitment in the programme for Government to develop a successor at the end of our current strategy’s lifespan.

A key initiative in our current strategy is the continued development and enhancement of our youth diversion projects. These community-based initiatives seek to direct young people who have become involved in crime and antisocial behaviour. They also support wider preventative work within their communities, particularly with at-risk families. We all know that there is no quick-fix solution to directing young offenders away from a life of crime. However, these youth diversion projects offer a responsive, empathetic path towards a better quality of life for many.

I have been fortunate enough to see first hand the incredible work being done by people up and down the country in these projects. In my capacity as Minister of State, I have visited the LIFE project in my home county of Limerick as well as Solas in the Liberties. Youth diversion projects give renewed hope to some of the most vulnerable people in our society. They offer a chance at a better, more fulfilling life. This work has been shown to have positive impacts on these young people, their families and their communities.

My Department conducted a youth diversion project evaluation that identified decreasing risk levels among participants in respect of peer relations, leisure and recreation, personality and behaviour, and attitudes and orientation. It showed that young people who engaged with youth diversion projects were less involved in criminal or antisocial behaviour and had improved self-confidence and communication skills, increased happiness and an overall improved sense of hope.

Two new successful youth diversion applications have recently been commissioned in east Clare and north Tipperary. I am delighted that when these projects are up and running before the end of the year, we will have achieved full nationwide coverage in our youth diversion programme.

This means that any child in the country who needs to avail of these services will be able to do so.

This expansion has been made possible by the unprecedented funding that has been allocated to youth justice services. The youth justice strategy is not just a plan on paper; it is a commitment to the young people of Ireland and a promise to create a brighter, more equitable future for all. By investing in our youth, we are investing in the future of Ireland. We are building a society where young people can achieve their potential, positively impact their communities and escape cycles of crime. Funding for youth justice services has increased substantially from €18 million in 2020 to just over €36 million in budget 2025. It has also allowed for increased availability of these services at weekends and late at night, a key recommendation of our Department's evaluation. It ensures that these vital services are made available when many young people need them most, and it increases our supports for those young people who are hardest to reach and allows for early interventions for eight- to 11-year-olds, who may be at risk of becoming engaged in criminal activity. All of this reflects our continued commitment to investing in our youth for the betterment of our communities.

We have also made a commitment to expanding these services to be available to 18- to 24-year-olds. We know from international research that a number of factors place young adults in this age group at a higher risk of becoming involved in criminal behaviour. It is important to reach out to this age group and ensure those in it recognise they will not be abandoned or left to fend for themselves when they officially become young adults as they turn 18. It is also very important to emphasise that youth diversion is not about people avoiding consequences for their actions. It is about recognising that many people who stray from the path need guidance and support to prevent them from reoffending. Every cent that we invest in diverting young people away from the criminal justice system pays us back in spades. It is also important to emphasise that diversion works. At the time of the introduction of the Children Act 2001, some 30,000 children committed crimes each year. By 2016, that had reduced to 10,000 approximately. This decline has continued. In 2023, the most recent year for which official figures are available, the figure was 7,843.

Another example of our commitment to youth justice is in the Greentown programme, established by our Department in 2020. This programme aims to reduce the influence of criminal networks on children at risk of involvement. It also seeks to improve the likelihood of pro-social outcomes for children who are already involved in these criminal networks. The Greentown programme has been in place in two locations since 2021, and has now been extended for a further three years. Over the last two years, there have been notable improvements in reducing the influence of criminal networks in the trial site communities. Children and families are better enabled to withstand the powerful attraction of network membership and to make pro-social choices.

The programme also targets adults who seek to groom children into their criminal networks as one of its key pillars. Reducing the susceptibility of the young people concerned to negative influence by criminal networks has laid positive foundations for greater concentration on the network disruption pillar over this second phase of the trial sites. To further support this work, legislation was introduced last year that makes it an offence for an adult to either force or encourage children to engage in any criminal activity. Those found guilty of the offences under this Act may face imprisonment of up to 12 months on summary conviction and up to five years on indictment. The legislation recognises the lifelong impact and harm done to a child by drawing him or her into criminal activity. We are unfortunately all too aware of the immensely damaging impact these organised crime gangs can have on communities. This is yet another key step as we strive to deliver on our commitment to criminalise those who target some of the most vulnerable in our society, namely our children and young people, in order to commit offences.

A very serious issue which can result in young people being drawn into criminality is the sale and supply of drugs, most specifically drug-related intimidation. To tackle this, An Garda Síochána has run Operation Fógra since 2020. This operation was established in the Dublin metropolitan region to enhance the understanding of and support An Garda Síochána’s response to incidents of drug-related intimidation in the Dublin metropolitan region. The operation has two pillars - a harm-reduction, victim-centred approach and information-enabled policing, informing operational responses. The objectives of Operation Fógra are to increase front-line awareness of drug-related intimidation, enhance collaboration with community supports, improve effectiveness of the drug-related intimidation reporting programme and provide a greater analytical understanding of drug-related intimidation, driving appropriate and proactive interventions. An Garda Síochána continues to make arrests under this operation. In January of this year, as part of ongoing investigations into drug-related intimidation, gardaí from the Dublin metropolitan region north division, assisted by the district drug unit, the armed support unit and the Garda dog unit, conducted a number of searches under warrant in north County Dublin. A man in his 50s and a woman in her 40s were arrested under organised crime legislation. I commend An Garda Síochána on this work. It is important that it continues to tackle those who attempt to ensnare young people in a life of crime, either through grooming or intimidation.

With regard to tackling the sale and supply of drugs more broadly, An Garda Síochána continues to target those involved in street-level drug dealing across the country. The focus of An Garda Síochána is on disrupting and dismantling drug trafficking networks that impact our communities, and prosecuting those involved at every level, through Operation Tara. The focus of Operation Tara is to disrupt, dismantle and prosecute drug trafficking networks, at all levels - international, national and local - involved in the importation, distribution, cultivation, production, local sale and supply of controlled drugs. Under Operation Tara, individuals and groups involved in the drug trade will be the target of enforcement activity based on intelligence and the latest crime trends. The Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, GNDOCB, leads in tackling all forms of drug trafficking and the supply of illicit drugs in Ireland. The unit was established in 2015. Since then, the unit has seized €627 million in illicit drugs, 171 firearms and 6,586 rounds of ammunition and made 1,722 arrests. Again, I commend An Garda Síochána on this work. The more it does to disempower those who entrap young people in crime, the better. The Garda Commissioner has stated that he will continue to target those who import and supply drugs. I am sure that is something we all welcome and can recognise the positive impact it will have on the lives of young people across the country.

Today the Minister, Deputy O’Callaghan, has commenced the landmark Policing, Security and Community Safety Act. This Act will provide for the establishment of local community safety partnerships across the country. These innovative projects bring together local stakeholders with Government agencies and An Garda Síochána to create a community safety plan tailored to their needs. The plans will assign ownership to the appropriate State body to address each concern, whether that is additional street cleaning by the local authority or increased Garda engagement in a particular area. Nobody understands the needs of a community better than the communities themselves. These partnerships will complement the work of the youth diversion projects, providing accessible services that young people want to engage with.

The Act also provides for a national office for community safety. A function of this office is to provide training, guidance and support to the partnerships. In preparation for the establishment of the national office, a number of staff, including a director designate, have been appointed. These staff are engaging directly with local authorities and other stakeholders to support the establishment of the partnerships. These tailored approaches to community safety will address the specific needs of our young people, ensuring that no one is left behind. By doing so, we strengthen the fabric of our society and create a more inclusive environment where every young person has the chance to thrive.

The community safety fund, founded by our Department, also plays a central role in supporting our communities. This fund was established in 2021 to reinvest the moneys seized as the proceeds of crime into new, innovative community safety projects, a number of which are focused on youth justice.

It highlights the great work being done by An Garda Síochána and the Criminal Assets Bureau in identifying and seizing these ill-gotten gains. It puts the money back into local communities for the benefit and support of those who need it the most.

We are already seeing the positive impact on communities of projects such as the steering and sparring programme from Omeath District Development. I assure the House that we will continue to support initiatives like this and many others across Ireland. We have seen the incredible work that is being done by people across the country to improve the lives of our young people. It is a reflection of the fact that, when it comes to our young people, it truly does take a village.

Youth diversion is not about young people avoiding punishment or consequences. The aim of the statutory Garda youth diversion programme is to prevent young people from entering the criminal justice system. An Garda Síochána's decision on whether to admit a young person to a diversion programme is based on a number of factors. These include the nature of the offence, the impact of the offence on the community, the views of the victim and the offending history of the young person. Diversion is not used for very serious offences or serious repeat offending. I believe that every young person deserves the opportunity to improve his or her quality of life. Young people deserve to have choices and to be enabled to make better life decisions for themselves.

Now that we have achieved full nationwide coverage, every child will have this opportunity. However, we cannot afford to get complacent. Too many children with complex backgrounds and needs still come to Garda attention. We must continue to focus on working with children who are heavily involved with crime and antisocial behaviour, or who are at risk of being groomed by criminals, to pull them back and give them a better pathway in life. We will continue to strive to improve the quality of these children's lives and those of everyone in their communities in line with our youth justice strategy.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and look forward to listening to Deputies' contributions to this debate.

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter. This is a priority area in the programme for Government. I see at home how important youth diversion projects are. The newest one just started in east Clare in the past fortnight. This is the first time that the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, has been here leading a debate. I congratulate him on his new role and wish him the best in the Department. We have a good man leading the youth diversion area.

It is important that we broaden the service even more. I note that is in the programme for Government. It generally tends to locate in big towns but we have seen in recent years that the problems young people face as they navigate those difficult adolescent and teenage years are not just confined to urban street settings. Many children and adolescents in rural areas are also struggling. The east Clare youth diversion programme that the Minister of State has established will go some way towards addressing that.

One alarming thing I recently encountered was the case of a young person, not yet 18, who had gone through addiction services. When the young person returned to the home environment, the very people who were trying to sell that person drugs for a long time reappeared. When people are treated for drug addiction, they remove themselves from the sales market, a client is gone and a sales base is gone. In this particular instance, I was told that the person refused several times to buy the drugs that the person had been weaned off of during the treatment period. The young person was eventually held to the ground and injected by a gang of thugs. We are doing all the right stuff with youth diversion and leading people off the wrong path, but more can be done, particularly for young people who have gone through addiction therapy services. There are fantastic services but there seems to be a drop-off when they leave that support network and return to the home environment.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Is ábhar tábhachtach é seo. Caithfimid níos mó a dhéanamh chun stop a chur le daoine óga a bheith páirteach sa choiriúlacht. Ensuring that young people are not drawn into criminality is a crucial part of any effort to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour and make our communities safer. There are two elements to this. First is ensuring that as many young people as possible never actually become involved in criminal activity. The second is ensuring that those who do are rehabilitated and do not engage in further criminality. In particular, we need to ensure that public policy supports those young people who are vulnerable because of difficult upbringings, mental health issues, addiction issues, deprivation and poverty, as well as those who are leaving the care of the State.

Juvenile crime levels have risen in recent years. We have seen sharp increases in reports of theft, robbery, fraud and sexual offences by teenagers. The increase in sexual crimes by young people is a stand-alone and complex problem that needs to be addressed, including through understanding the reasons behind this increase and the role of education, parents and social media. The rise in juvenile crime across the board shows that Government policy is currently failing. These failures are a result of a combination of cuts that were implemented over the past 15 years, failure to invest in communities, failure to invest in youth outreach programmes and in child and youth mental health services, and of course the dramatic reduction in the number of community gardaí. The impact of cuts on community projects, youth services and regeneration projects that were implemented in the aftermath of the economic crash has never been fully examined and, more importantly, has never been fully redressed.

Diverting young people from crime cannot be dealt with separately to how we address economic inequality and deprivation, how we invest in communities, including in housing and public services, and how we give every young person a sense of hope and the opportunity to achieve his or her full potential, no matter the young person's background or class. That means access to housing, education, training, services, facilities and job opportunities. Unless the Government puts funding into communities, youth outreach programmes, child and youth mental health services and sports facilities, particularly in deprived and disadvantaged communities, there is little point in us having debates like this.

Looking at statistics on the educational attainment and skills of those who end up in our prisons, it is clear that supporting young people to stay in school and gain qualifications is a crucial part of any effort to divert them from crime. The educational welfare system needs to be properly resourced and staffed. We need to do much better at tackling recidivism and rehabilitating young people who become involved in crime.

Sinn Féin wants to see the Garda youth diversion programme properly resourced and staffed, with sufficient Garda juvenile liaison officers in place. We also want to see the programme extended to those aged up to 24, in line with international best practice.

Before concluding, I want to address the role of community gardaí. These are the gardaí who know the communities that they serve in and the young people in those communities. They are the gardaí whose job it is to build relationships in the community, be approachable and develop positive relationships with young people in particular while also being visible on the ground. When we look at the increased levels of juvenile crime and antisocial behaviour, we cannot ignore what has happened with community gardaí. There were only 700 community gardaí in the State at the end of last year compared with 1,113 at the end of 2011. At a minimum, we need an additional 500 community gardaí. I hope the Minister for Justice will finally recognise this and act on it.

Of course, we cannot simply police our way to safer communities, but likewise, we cannot build safer communities without adequate policing. Therefore, the responses to these issues have to be targeted, multifaceted, visionary and community centred. The Government is failing on all fronts at the moment.

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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We are discussing diverting young people away from criminal activity today. The best way to do that is to offer our young people hope. It is the hope that, if they fulfil their social contract, then the Government will do the same. Imagine being a young person in Ireland today and having the ambition to have a safe and secure home. It is almost impossible due to Government failings in housing. Imagine being a young person waiting for appointments with mental health services or disability services and being failed. Imagine being a young person who is waiting for a school place with provision for additional needs and being failed.

I take the opportunity to express my solidarity with the parents who are sleeping outside Leinster House tonight for 24 hours to raise awareness that their kids are not getting special education places this year. The Government needs to redress this imbalance and properly invest in housing, health and the educational needs of our young people. When the Government fails, vulnerable young people fall between the cracks of society. In a real republic, youth justice would give all the young people of this island an equal chance to reach their full potential, but successive Governments have failed in this. I am honoured to have been appointed the Sinn Féin spokesperson on community, safety and youth justice. I wish the Minister of State well in his role over the next year. I will work with him in a tangible way but I will also hold him to account.

When we think of young people and crime, we usually think of gangs of youths up to no good, but what are we doing to engage with these young people? The Minister of State mentioned a youth diversion programme that is in two locations so far. That is great but it needs to be in every constituency in Dublin and probably every constituency in the State. What he mentioned is only a drop in the ocean.

Last year, I visited the Solas Project in Dublin 8. I accompanied its workers on outreach as they engaged with young people who are involved in crime or in danger of becoming involved in crime. Their motto is: "Nobody is too far gone, everybody is worth it, everyone can change, communities can improve, society can flourish." I agree with that wholeheartedly but they need to be resourced. That project needs to be replicated in other parts of our city and counties. I spoke with some of the young people who could see no way out of poverty other than getting involved in crime. They look around and see their area being regentrified. They see the new buildings going up and they know that they will never be able to afford a place to live in their own area. The outreach workers I accompanied were professional. They engaged with young people where they were at. They supported them in suggesting some positive changes they could make. Solas uses evidence-based methods that have led young people to move away from a life of crime.

In an area of high poverty, it is very easy for young people to get involved in criminality. They see criminals with flash jackets, new runners, top of the range cars and a seemingly endless supply of money. They also see an attraction in becoming a somebody. However, let me be clear: these criminals are absolute nobodies. They groom our children, suck the lifeblood out of our communities and offer nothing in return. We need to see projects, such as Solas and the one the Minister of State mentioned, replicated throughout the State and the rest of Dublin.

I raised this matter with the Minister recently. Parts of my constituency are basically under siege by gangs of young people. This is often written off as antisocial behaviour. Nothing annoys a community more when it is said, "It is only antisocial behaviour." Let me be clear. Drug dealing is not antisocial behaviour; it is a criminal activity. Intimidation is not antisocial behaviour but a criminal activity. Vandalism of public and private property is not antisocial behaviour but a criminal offence. Assaults are not antisocial behaviour but are criminal offences. Arson attacks, many of which my area has been subject to over the past year or so, are not antisocial behaviour; they are criminal offences.

We need to resource the Garda and give it the powers to deal with the criminal activity in our communities. Our communities have every right to feel safe.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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I proudly represent a diverse constituency that is also one of the youngest in the State. The Minister of State talked about community engagement and the need to foster positive behavioural change. I agree with him. Positive behavioural change is definitely a worthwhile goal for our young people. It is also a worthwhile goal for members of An Garda Síochána.

I draw the Minister of State's attention to the findings of the Irish Network Against Racism study published in the past couple of days. It found that survey participants described traumatic experiences while being stopped by members of An Garda Síochána, including strip searches, property damage and wrongful arrests, some of which had long-lasting psychological impacts. Rural and Dublin groups spoke about concerns about racial profiling and disproportionate stopping of young black men by police. Both groups shared examples. Every word in this report is echoed by the anecdotal experience and evidence from my constituency. I commend the members of An Garda Síochána who undertake community-based activity and are really trying hard. I know them in the area where I live, as does the Minister of State. They are going above and beyond, but what this report tells us is there is a serious issue that has to be addressed.

The report makes a number of recommendations. I will draw the Minister of State's attention to some of them. Sadly, many of them relate to very simple things, such as the collection of data. It is shameful that is not being done. The report also references the establishment of intercultural partnership structures in each division between An Garda Síochána and diverse representatives within minority ethnic communities. That is something that can and should be done.

Young people need to have a respectful attitude to An Garda Síochána and a positive attitude to their engagements but that goes both ways. We cannot expect our young people to have faith in An Garda Síochána unless they can see that replicated and reflected back to them.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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This is a crucially important area. When it is properly supported, the difference it makes is profound. I have seen in the community where I live the difference it makes when there is a good community garda and a good youth diversion project, and what it achieves in respect of the trust and relationship between the young people in an area, a community garda and a youth diversion project.

Unfortunately, the pressure Garda numbers are under means this will be significantly undermined. We have a situation that was reported recently where two stations, Carrigaline and Douglas, that previously had independent Garda units will have to merge those units. These are two areas with more than 30,000 people where the Garda will have to merge these units because of the personnel shortage that exists. That is replicated in Ballincollig and Bishopstown. In the Cork city division, Garda units are being merged, as they are under such pressure because there have been so many retirements. Those gardaí are not being replaced and Cork is not getting a fair share of the gardaí coming out of Templemore. I appreciate this is a national problem but Cork is not getting anywhere near enough in the context of the population there.

What happens in these situations where there is a shortage of Garda numbers? Community gardaí will inevitably be pulled into front-line policing and core unit work, which is crucially important. However, if community policing is being sacrificed, that preventative work, the relationship and trust built up with young people, and that proactive work in preventing crime suffers significantly. I am very concerned by the implications the lack of Garda resources will have.

From talking to youth diversion project workers, they are prevented from working with young people over the age of 18. This is not the case when referring, and young people obviously need to face full criminal responsibility for any actions, but the point is there should be further scope to work with people who have been through the projects and reached the age of 18, who are trying to get jobs or enter further education and training, to support them in getting employment and so on.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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We sincerely want to work with the Minister on this. We will support positive initiatives but in the austerity years, funding for youth clubs, youth projects and education were all slashed, whether these were for diverse communities, the Travelling community or working-class areas. We need that funding restored. That is the first thing I ask for. Second, we need investment in more community policing, especially in areas where we know there is huge social deprivation. You can see it. It is there in part of the constituency I come from. There is a big cross-section where I come from, but certain areas need extra help. We need community gardaí on the ground.

In the past couple of years, I have seen a number of young people die by suicide, which is absolutely tragic, because of intimidation due to drug debts they had and their families being threatened. We need to be able to work with young people. The youth diversion scheme needs to be broader. It needs to go into clubs and schools. I am involved with a GAA club in Cork. It is a terrible thing to say, but I know a certain kid who will be gone and will not be playing by the time they are 14. We have volunteers who are running the teams and doing their best, but we know the kids who need the most help will not get it because we have just two or three volunteers helping out. Youth diversion projects should be working with this.

There was a superintendent in Cork, Mick O'Loughlin, who was a former Cork player, a great GAA man and a great garda. He used come out to coach our under-14 team every year. Why? It was because the kids would get to know a garda and would build up a relationship. It was good for him, good for the Garda and good for the community. That is the kind of stuff we need. Whether it is through education, sport, the arts, including music and dance, we need to work with young people to get them away from criminality.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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Any discussion about community safety, crime or youth diversion must take into account the wider context of the absolute failure - let us call it what it is - of the Government to adequately resource public services within communities all across the State. There is the failure to invest adequately in community infrastructure, social and outreach services, drugs and alcohol strategies, youth justice and diversion programmes and An Garda Síochána.

Garda stations have been closed right across rural Ireland during the past decade or more and those that have survived are often left without enough personnel in them. They are left empty for most of the time if we are being honest. Garda visibility is at an all-time low. This is right across the State but is particularly pronounced in rural Ireland and in particular in my own area in west Waterford. I see it all of the time. That puts huge pressure, not just on members of An Garda Síochána but on communities as well. It is adding to the sense that communities are no longer totally safe. This can be clearly seen on the ground in west Waterford in towns such as Lismore but also many other towns and villages across County Waterford where there is just not that availability of Garda personnel.

We cannot separate the issue of young people becoming involved in criminality from the abject failure of the Government to address inequality and deprivation. Our communities have yet to recover from the austerity era and a number of Teachtaí have mentioned that. We have consistently advocated for early intervention for community-based approaches to divert young people from criminal activity, support for young people to keep them out of detention and support for those being released from detention as well. We need to ensure the social services, youth services and community infrastructure are there. We do not have a family resource centre in my own town of Dungarvan. It is a town of well over 10,000 people and one of the only towns of its size in the State that does not have a family resource centre. These basic building blocks of community infrastructure are missing in so many communities up and down this State. That is where this problem begins and this is where it must end.

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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When we look across our cities we see fantastic work is being done by youth workers and we really need to support them. A few weeks ago I met representatives of Galway City Partnership to discuss their work in the Headford Road area of Galway centred around Ballinfoyle, which draws in community members from neighbouring estates in the city as well as areas just outside the city such as Carrowbrowne. Galway City Partnership has identified this as a disadvantaged area but with fewer community resources when compared with other disadvantaged areas in the city. In particular, they are trying to improve community resources for children, which is a fantastic initiative. As there are not currently many spaces and opportunities for children and teenagers to socialise outside of school, they have a particular focus on that.

As a result of this, Galway City Partnership established Ballinfoyle youth activities project, which aims to provide free activities for children from the ages of five to 16. Since its launch in January 2024, it has engaged with 240 children living locally, and currently engages with 80 children every week which is fantastic. It also has 40 children on its waitlist. It is looking to expand what the project can offer and make sure they can put it on a sustainable footing in terms of a funding model. That is why I wanted to raise the project with the Minister of State because that is with we need to look at when talking about these issues.

Ballinfoyle youth activities project also did a survey of the area and the teens interviewed responded that there was not much to do apart from hang around bus stops and outside the local shop. The teens feel they are just seen as being up to no good, whatever that might mean, and that kind of message can be internalised by them. The project wants to be build a sense of community and pride in the youth and keep them engaged with activities and events around their community.

One of the young people involved told me that a lot of trouble comes from people sitting around and doing nothing whereas in here you are actually doing something. They are doing their theory tests and doing up CVs, which is setting them up for jobs and setting them for driving as well. That is getting their lives sorted and the project is actually helping the young people do that, and they are more motivated to do stuff in the project.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Please conclude, Deputy.

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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We need to examine that project and make sure we put it on a sustainable funding model.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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It is clear there is a lot of work to be done to have proper youth services in place across the entire State. The Children Act states that a juvenile should not be in the criminal justice system, and only as a last resort or for a very serious crime. That is absolutely appropriate but the big issue in my experience has been resourcing. That comes into everything. We can have all the perfect plans in the world and all of the legislation but unless is resourced and unless we have gardaí to provide the service and to liaise with all of the other services out, including youth services, mental health services and everything else, we will go nowhere. That is the big issue we need to grapple with.

I will bring something I raised a number of years ago to the Minister of State's attention. I raised a case in my own constituency of a young girl who was a victim of a serious sexual assault. A number of young men, who were juveniles at the time, were clearly identified in respect of that. What happened was they were diverted into the youth diversion programme. That young girl was extremely upset. Her family was extremely upset. They were not dealt with properly and I understand that is not the only case in the State where this has happened and the youth diversion programme has been used, in what I consider and anyone objective looking at it, in a most inappropriate manner. These young men who engaged in a very serious sexual assault were in the eyes of the victim let off scot-free, and the victim and her family had a serious issue with that. That needs to be examined.

I have written to the Minister about this case on a number of occasions and I know there has been some effort to examine and review the youth diversion programme, particularly in respect of sex crimes. I would like the Minister of State to take note of and examine this closely because it was a serious issue for that family and I know there are others in a similar predicament.

At the end of the day the youth diversion programme can, and should, work very well if it is properly resourced. The point needs to be made clearly that we cannot have a situation where the programme is used inappropriately or wrongly and a lot of that comes down to proper governance and regulation. I understand that has been missing up to now as youth diversion programmes have been used across the State in an ad hoc manner. That needs to change and there needs to be proper governance and proper resources put into that system.

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the opportunity strategies we urgently need to use to divert young people from criminal activity. Children who are lured into criminal activity should still be afforded the opportunity to reach their full potential. Our young people are our future and we must invest in them. Unfortunately, some have been lured into criminality. I have seen that happen in my own city. They look around their communities and see disadvantage. They are longing for the instant material benefits a life of criminality can bring. They want to buy the nice watch, the nice jacket, expensive trainers and have the status they believe their involvement in criminal activities brings.

Unfortunately, this is true in my home city of Limerick, as it is in other parts of the State. In some areas, drug dealers and senior gang members use teenagers on bikes, horses and e-scooters to deliver drugs and receive payments for that. Teenagers are vulnerable to being groomed into the criminal lifestyle. When we consider that 18- to 25-year-olds are the largest group in our prisons, it is clear early intervention is crucial.

The intervention should come from knowing your community garda but there are far too few of them and far too many communities where community garda numbers have been decimated by successive Governments. Criminality thrives in areas with deprivation and that lack sports complexes, youth clubs and facilities. The investment we make now in our young people in our communities will pay dividends in the future. We need to give these children a sense of hope and the opportunity to achieve. That involves access to education, job opportunities and the prospect of owning their own homes. The drug dealers who corrupt these children are a plague on our communities. They are anti-community. They offer nothing positive and are a scourge on the hard-working people on these local estates. It is the hard-working people in these areas that keep the communities going despite the presence of these criminals. Too often our working-class communities have been let down by successive Governments through lack of funding and lack of support for community gardaí. There is simply not enough of them. Young people in these communities are being left behind as a result.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Some of us were very lucky to play football, very badly, in Mountjoy Prison recently. I would probably hate to see rap sheets of the guys we played against. I also hate to point out that we lost very badly - twice. The fact is we were probably dealing with people who are very different from when they were charged and when they were involved in criminality probably many years beforehand. What we need to see with regard to youth diversion are projects that are a means and way we can absolutely divert people away from what will be very costly to them to their victims, and to society as a whole. I have seen the huge work done by the High Voltage Project, which now has an early intervention piece, that operates out of a house in Cox's Demesne, Dundalk and also the teen youth diversion project operating out of the Muirhevnamor Community Youth Project. It is like all of these projects. We talk about brilliant people who are doing brilliant work but it is about the resources and at some stage we are coming too late to the problem.

The Minister of State spoke earlier about criminality and then he started speaking about drugs. Unfortunately for a significant part of the country, it is all about drugs. As I said to the Minister, there needs to be a real conversation around the issues out there, in particular issues that are happening in working-class areas where it is a hell of a lot worse as regards drug debt intimidation and other issues which are impacted more by having fewer gardaí.

People from soccer teams have come to me suggesting that we need to increase pressure in the next while because we just have too many bad examples of what are reasonably sized drug dealers, who, as I said last week, at times have had houses seized by CAB, which has carried out some serious operations against them. However, they are still in operation and they provide the bad example, particularly in these working-class areas that are suffering high levels of deprivation.

We need to get real and we will engage with the Minister of State. However, there has to be a two-way engagement, a real conversation and a real plan. That means we need to go out there and assess the problem that we are dealing with because I do not think anyone has been serious about this to date.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I call Deputy Kelly who is sharing time with Deputy Lawlor.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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This is a very important issue, which goes beyond political tit-for-tat stuff. The achievements that can be made for young people in this area if it is properly resourced are unique. I acknowledge that there has been a dramatic increase in funding in this area, which has gone from €21 million or €22 million up to €36 billion in a short time. There was a gap in fulfilment across the jurisdiction affecting my area of north Tipperary and east Clare. I am not claiming east Clare but I wake up every morning and see east Clare, so there is a crossover. They were the two areas that were left. In fairness, in February of this year there was an announcement that Foróige would run the programme in both areas. North Tipperary and east Clare come under the one policing jurisdiction. That is a problem at times but at least we now have the one organisation running this for both areas.

I believe we have more than 113. This has been surveyed and the analysis has shown the very impressive improvements it makes in young people's lives. However, the success rates vary in different locations. There are major issues in areas with higher levels of crime and social deprivation. Statistically, it has been shown that the programmes cannot cope.

We genuinely have a problem with the number of community gardaí. The figures and facts show they are down. I have engaged a lot with the Minister on increasing recruitment and I hope we will be able to deal with that. I believe that community gardaí are incredibly important but the problem is that in many cases, community gardaí are being appointed but they are being taken from other areas of the force in the local division. The problem is that those positions are never backfilled. Gardaí are coming into community policing, which is totally necessary, but their previous roles are not backfilled because we do not have enough gardaí to do so. Every single TD in the Chamber is dealing with that. I come across it all the time in my area.

We also need to improve the outcomes through education dramatically. That is why integrating school programmes with the youth diversion programme is so critical. Many schools do great work with young people. While the education side of things is fine for 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds, it may drift on to the stage where it has to be about employment. This comes to the issue of trades and the requirement for more people to move into trades. I have seen situations where young people who were going on a certain pathway ended up going on an alternative pathway, feeling of much greater worth and getting qualified in a trade. Is that not fantastic? Is that not what we all want to see where there is a positive impact on their lives, where they are contributing to society and where their sense of worth is huge?

There is a significant issue with drugs, which are ubiquitous. Children are being sucked into being mules for drug dealers. Much of this is through organised crime. Any advancements made with young people through this programme are lost because they are continually reintroduced; it is all part of their lives. They are socialised around this. They are trying to help family members. They are not fully aware of the consequences of their actions. Continually trying to intercept that is a big problem.

It can also be formed in a sense through constant intimidation. The work of gardaí must go beyond what they do through the programmes by trying to isolate young people from some of the aspects of the community they are in. That is very difficult because many of the kids come from very difficult backgrounds, in some cases dysfunctional families and sometimes there are intergenerational issues. There needs to be a wraparound service for these kids to try to change their lives.

This has started but there is a big gap. The programmes need to run seven days a week. Having them for just five days does not fit. It is necessary to have some form of interaction, monitoring and relationship seven days a week so that the kids in the programme do not feel that it is a Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. programme and rather it is an holistic programme that they are contributing to and that is having an impact on their lives.

I have seen how young people in these programmes have changed their attitudes towards society and communities, and have changed their behaviour in how they respect public facilities. They have changed their attitude to sports clubs. They have changed their attitude to themselves and their self-worth. They have changed their attitude to An Garda Síochána. Many of the gardaí who do this work have a vocation. It is a vocation that is slightly to other work in An Garda Síochána. The people who do this work have great patience and understanding. They have a sociological awareness of what they have to deal with. The respect that is generated takes time but it does happen.

In many cases we need a multiagency approach. It is not just through the schools, An Garda Síochána and the other people involved. We also need to ensure that health agencies, social agencies and family groups across the country are all also involved. It is not a one-size-fits all approach. In many cases, we also need other supports. It needs to be a no-wrong-door experience so that when kids go into this programme, they understand that they are in a programme where no matter which door they pick, there will be a different pathway for them once they go through it.

I wish to raise a number of concerns that have been mentioned previously. There are certain crimes committed by young people, which mean they do not merit being put into this programme. It is unfortunate but it is real. I refer to rape and other serious crimes. In some cases people in the age bracket up to 18 have been put through this programme despite having committed such crimes.

There is within the regulations the power for the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, or the senior Minister, to change those regulations to ensure that certain crimes are not facilitated as part of this programme. I am not sure anyone in this House would disagree with me on that. There needs to be a formality around this. Victims must have a say. In the context of the regulations and the legislation, they do not. We should change the regulations to ensure that certain crimes like that are not facilitated. I understand it is happening less since it was the subject of a report by "Prime Time Investigates" a number of years ago but there are certainly other crimes, not just those relating to sexual offences and rape, that should also not be covered under the programme.

The Minister of State referred to how the programme has been extended to early intervention in relation to eight- to 11-year-olds. That is welcome. In Roscrea in my constituency, the North Tipperary Partnership is involved in work relating to an early intervention initiative at the Roscrea Youth Service. That is the type of work we need in order to intercept young people at a very young age to prevent them from getting involved in a life of crime.

I also feel that we need to work much more closely with sports organisations. Such organisations have a major impact and a huge pull. They have a capacity to influence young people way more than any of us in this Chamber or others throughout the country can. I honestly believe that sports clubs can have a significant and healthy impact on people's lives when it comes to the issue of drugs. As part of a whole-of-Oireachtas plan, we should look at how to engage all the major sports organisations to work with each other and with us to put in place a plan for how we can promote healthy living and the type of societal behaviour and outcomes we want to see and highlight the dangers of drugs. I have attended meetings where people said they had spoken at events hosted by sports organisations. They had asked national sporting organisations to engage in a programme to encourage people to say no to drugs and to create a whole brand around this. They have not even received a reply. If the Ministers for Health and Justice could work on this, it would be extremely beneficial.

This is a great programme. It should be supported by everybody. It does need more resources and community gardaí must have the capacity to engage. We need to look at the regulations and ensure that they are changed.

George Lawlor (Wexford, Labour)
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If we look across the country, it is clear that when it comes to diverting young people from criminal activity, the presence of community gardaí delivers huge results. I have seen it across my home county of Wexford where community gardaí working assiduously on the ground are making a real difference in their communities. Investment in community gardaí is a no-brainer when it comes diverting young people from criminal activity.

I wish to highlight the example of Ferndale, an area in my hometown of Wexford. Even though I have referred to community gardaí, I believe this is a cross-agency matter. I agree with my colleague Deputy Kelly in that regard. A number of years ago, I worked with Tom Enright, a former excellent county manager in Wexford. I approached him about utilising a piece of council land to put in place some sporting facilities. Mr. Enright came fully on board. He was extremely supportive and the council came on board. Following on from that, we applied for sports capital funding and the Government gave us €300,000. We built some AstroTurf facilities. So impressed with the whole development was a local businessperson that he volunteered €500,000 as a donation towards the project. Wexford FC then came on board, and each week people come together under the stewardship of Mark Ross and his team. In this area that had suffered over the years from antisocial activity, people are coming together. The custodians of the AstroTurf facility are the local mothers in the area. We are now currently building a boxing club on foot of the resources and the funds the council have added to this. A cross-agency approach is needed and not just when it comes to community gardaí. Certainly, the benefits of everybody coming together under the leadership of community gardaí initially, and with their endorsement, leads to results.

Another area in Wexford town benefits greatly from the presence of a family resource centre. The Southend Family Resource Centre operates in the Maudlintown area of Wexford town. One can see on the ground that it is almost a perfect storm of community development. People come together, anchored and centred by the centre. It is there that the ideas, facilities, projects and courses spring from. It brings together all elements of the community, be they the men's shed, knitting groups or choirs. The local sports GAA club is here as well, St. Mary's of Maudlintown. These groups are coming together and community gardaí are providing assistance.

Community gardaí are leading the charge. They give credibility to any project that leads to an enhancement of a particular area. I urge that there be consistent and increased investment in community gardaí.

Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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This is a very important debate because, as the Minister of State will be aware, the more people we can divert from criminal activity, the better. Apart from being good for the individual themselves, this leads to a significant saving for the State. I agree with colleagues about the importance of community gardaí. Within the communities in which we live, we all know of those gardaí who have been effective in engaging with young people and youth organisations. There has to be an increased emphasis placed on gardaí getting to know those young people who are particularly hard to reach, some of whom are from minority and Traveller backgrounds, to get them to be actively involved within their communities. Many youth groups in areas I represent in Wicklow-Wexford are more than willing to engage with gardaí. That investment in youth services is critical.

The tradition of gardaí going into schools and talking about their work and breaking down the barriers is critically important. We are not seeing this to the same extent that we did in the past. In raising the matter with the Garda Síochána, I encourage the Minister of State to ask that there be an active programme of engaging with young people in schools and in the context of youth services.

One of the challenges of young people getting involved in crime is that they often end up there by simply being the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time, or they have had poor peer influence. In those circumstances, the key is that programmes are put in place to ensure that we prevent them from reoffending, that supports are in place to ensure they will not reoffend and that they do not end up going to prison, which becomes a training camp for them to develop worse habits and possibly get involved in more serious crime.

I am very heartened by the work of the Gate Service, which is part of the Irish Association for Social Inclusion Opportunities. I see this operating in Shelton Abbey, which is the open prison just outside Arklow. The facility there is managed by Neala Murphy, the training and employment officer with the Gate Service. Within an open prison, it allows for a lot of the prisoners, many of them young people, to have opportunities to contribute towards the community and take up education, training and even employment opportunities. In other words, those who have been involved in crime are given a second chance. I am aware that we are talking about diverting people away from criminal activity, but for those young people who make mistakes, and many of them do so, it is critical that we give them that second chance. We should look at investments in the likes of the Gate Service. I encourage the Minister of State to come to Shelton Abbey to see it in action.

I reiterate a critical point that was made earlier, namely that it is about engaging with young people, listening to young people and hearing their voices.

Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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Some children come into contact with the law as a consequence of doing what comes naturally to them: pushing boundaries, acting without thought of consequence and establishing themselves in the mistaken judgment that they are impressing their peers. They may also be victims of criminal exploitation. However, research shows that where children are apprehended and convicted in the criminal justice system, lives are blighted in terms of educational and employment opportunities. In fact, a 35-year international meta-analysis found that formal court processing and even formal out-of-court disposals increase the risk of further criminal activity and are a marker for predicting criminal involvement into adulthood.

Most adolescents grow out of criminal behaviour as they get older. It is recognised as the age–crime curve, peaking in mid-adolescence. The most deleterious thing we could do to adolescents and ourselves as a State would be to formally criminalise them. Children diverted at the point of arrest are less likely to reoffend, more likely to stay in education and more likely to find employment in later life. If we are serious about diverting young people from criminal activity, we must address the broader context in which that activity emerges. Drug use, mental health challenges and peer pressure are key drivers but they rarely exist in isolation. Too often they are accompanied by poverty, early school leaving, family instability, exposure to trauma and a lack of access to safe and supportive environments. Drug use among adolescents is not just a health concern; it is often a red flag for deeper distress. Substance use often begins as a coping mechanism for anxiety and adverse life experiences. Without the right support, it can become the gateway to exclusion, addiction and contact with the justice system. This is why mental health in its widest possible definition must be central to our response.

Young people today face enormous pressures online, in school and at home. Peer influence is another powerful force. Adolescents crave belonging and identity. When positive role models are absent or structured alternatives are lacking, they may find the sense of identity in peer groups where antisocial behaviour is normalised.

Youth work, education, sport and community engagement must not just be available but also visible, inclusive and appealing. The Government’s youth strategy and the expansion of the diversion projects are a welcome step. According to the Centre of Justice Innovation, diversion can reduce the police burden by up to 35% while giving young people a genuine second chance. In neighbouring jurisdictions like England and Wales, 40% of point-of-arrest diversion schemes limit access to those with two or fewer prior offences. So, what must we do? Eligibility must be flexible and inclusive, based on more than just a one-shot approach. Diversion schemes must be accessible and timely. Schemes have to be tailored to individual needs and not one size fits all. Schemes need to feed back to An Garda Síochána. Diversion schemes should be seen as an evidence-based investment in young people and the State itself.

Peter Cleere (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome these statements today on youth diversion. As we know, the programme for Government commits us to investing strongly in preventive measures, including youth justice programmes, while strengthening our laws. We have to commit, and I am committed, to building stronger, safer communities in my constituency, namely Carlow–Kilkenny, and nationally. Diverting vulnerable children away from a life of crime and giving them an opportunity to build a better future themselves is absolutely key to this.

Youth diversion projects intervene and support young people in trouble, which can be the difference between a lifelong career in crime and the pursuit of a better path for the rest one’s life. We owe it to our younger people and communities to make the interventions I describe and support better outcomes for all. Youth justice interventions are about recognising that many young people who stray from the proper path simply need support and direction to turn their lives around. My party and I are committed to ensuring children who have become involved in criminality and those at risk of doing so have the tools and supports necessary to make good choices and turn away from offending behaviour.

Diverting people from crime involves a combination of community support, education and intervention programmes. For me, there are a couple of key priorities in this regard, the first of which concerns youth mentorship programmes. We need to establish mentorship initiatives with positive role models. We are very fortunate in Ireland to have many positive role models who can guide our young individuals, helping them to navigate challenges and make better choices. However, in particular we need to focus on our recreational activities. We need to provide access to sports, arts and cultural programmes that engage youth in constructive activities and promote teamwork and leadership skills. As a result, we need to continue to invest in our sports capital grant infrastructure and encourage participation in sport, particularly female participation. There is a huge drop-off rate, particularly among girls at second level. We really need to focus our time and energy on participation in sport and make sure young people have this outlet for themselves.

On education and educational supports, we need to make sure we improve access to quality education and provide tutoring and after-school programmes to students to succeed academically, reducing the likelihood of criminal behaviour. There are now so many courses and options available for students of all ages, whether they go down the apprenticeship route or go to Carlow Institute or College of Further Education and Training, Kilkenny. The choice of courses available is endless and we can really steer people on the right path in this regard.

One of the biggest aspects for me concerns community engagement. We need to involve our young people in community service projects, allowing them to contribute positively to their neighbourhoods and develop a sense of belonging. I see this in communities right across Kilkenny and Carlow, including in the likes of Borris, St. Mullins, Ballymurphy, Ballinkillen, Graiguenamanagh, Thomastown and Callan. The participation of young people in the likes of litter-picking is absolutely fantastic. I will give an example. In my town, Graiguenamanagh, there is a fantastic initiative involving transition year students in the local college, Duiske College, and the senior Age Action team. The transition year students teach the older people in the community technology, including smartphones, and the older people in the community teach the young people skills such as knitting and sewing. It is a fantastic partnership. It has been replicated in many of the ETB schools in Carlow–Kilkenny, including in Ballyhale. It is absolutely fantastic.

On mental health services, we need to continue to provide accessible mental health resources and counselling to address underlying issues, such as trauma, anxiety and depression, which can also contribute to criminal behaviour.

By implementing these measures, communities right across Carlow–Kilkenny and nationally can create an environment that encourages positive development and reduces the risk of youth engaging in criminal activities.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Every city, town, village and smaller centre of population is affected by the issue of drugs. They are available on the street, on river walks, in children’s playgrounds and, indeed, in a graveyard in Kilkenny. The Garda knows about this. Children are being used to provide the drugs to the client in an effort to avoid the law. The policing committees involving the councils were very relevant during the last term but now the model has changed and is not as effective as it used to be. However, we do have resources on the ground. We have family resource centres, as mentioned by Deputy Gould. There are centres in Urlingford and Callan, County Kilkenny, and at the Fr. McGrath centre and Newpark Close in Kilkenny city. They do an amazing amount of work. They engage with the community at the level where they can make a difference to individuals and families. We need to support each and every one of the centres and maybe establish more. Owing to the increase in the availability of drugs and their use, we should explore this avenue. The required professionalism and community engagement exist at family resource centre level, and it is at this level that we need to make the difference.

Perhaps the law needs to be changed so we can intervene at an early stage in the case of children not in their teenage years but younger who are being used to facilitate the transaction of the sale of drugs. Using them is reprehensible but it is going on.

We have to intervene at various other levels in society to get those who are seen as leaders within their own communities or those who are obviously known to members of their own communities to stand out and give the example that is necessary.

I applaud the work being done by the GAA and every single club throughout the country. I firmly believe that the GAA, as an organisation, is the last man standing in the context of community development and the development of the characters, personalities and skills of young people. The more we invest in those clubs, the greater positive result there is for a community.

There is no doubt that the community gardaí, when they were active and out in the community, had a very positive effect too. They brought together the law and the enforcement and they engaged with the families and the children. Where you get a good community police officer, you will get a community that is actively engaged and supportive of the rule of law and that will see the different pathways out of the poverty they exist in, perhaps, but certainly a pathway out of the use of drugs or the use of drink.

I encourage the Minister to look at the structure in each of the Garda stations throughout the country to ensure that community gardaí are placed to the fore wherever they are located; throughout a city, a town, a village or indeed, an area that is in particular difficulty. The sooner we do that and invest in it, the sooner we will make an impact.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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The genesis of many of the issues we face today lay in the Fine Gael austerity years. Addressing issues like economic inequality and deprivation are the best proven methods to divert young people from crime. The truth of the matter is that we have yet to redress impacts and cuts to community projects and to youth projects from the time of the Fine Gael austerity years. Not only is this the case, in some crucial areas the situation is actually getting worse. Community gardaí are a vital of component. They establish and support community crime prevention measures. They are tasked with identifying and tackling the root causes of community issues. They patrol our local communities and are often accessible to the community.

I know from my experience as a public representative for the past 12 years that they are often my first port of call when I need to engage with the gardaí on a local matter. Crucially, in terms of youth diversion, it is community gardaí who are tasked with improving interaction, communication and community relations. In the Cavan, Monaghan and Louth region, in 2011 we had 41 community gardaí. By last year, this had decreased by more than one third to only 26. Figures understate this failure, given population growth over the intervening 13 years. In fact, what we see is that we have gone from one per 6,200 people to one in nearly 11,000, a 42% cut per capita. Our remaining community gardaí are expected to maintain the same output. That is a crucial reason we are having this debate today.

This is a legacy of the Minister's partners in government, and what I would like to hear about the plan to fix this from the Minister in his closing remarks. When will this be done? When will Cavan, Monaghan and Louth have the 45 community gardaí we would need to put us on at least an equal footing with where we were before the Minister's party ushered in the austerity years.

Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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It is clear that criminal activity among young people is on the rise but that did not happen in a vacuum. With increased reports of theft, fraud and sexual offences by teenagers aged 12 to 17 years of age, more needs to be invested in our young people to engage with them instead of treating them as social pariahs. Last week, I visited the Lough na Mona community centre in Leixlip, which is supported by In Sync. Lough na Mona is a council estate in a very affluent area in Leixlip. Supported by Kildare County Council, the youth workers, Mars and Zoe, are doing incredible work engaging with young people and providing a space for them to cook, meet, play pool and DJ. The are also educating them about the challenges they will face in the future such as the harm of drugs, the importance of consent and practical things like the difficulty of transitioning between primary school and secondary school.

I was told that upon its founding, local people it would not last more than a year and the young people would either burn it down or rob it. The centre has proved that if you treat young people with respect and give them a space of their own, they can be leaders in their own community. Three years later, they have seen incredible work, interest and engagement from the young people in the centre. They have been blessed by the flaithiúlacht of local enterprise in the area and financial support, but that support is not guaranteed. The Government needs to support youth community centres, like the one in Lough na Mona, and build more across north Kildare.

Unfortunately, we have too many people who are in jail today where neurodiversity was never assessed and they were let down by the system. Kids believed they stupid because of who they were and it led them to drugs and crime. We have to invest in our special education system as well. I have just come from an emotionally charged meeting in the audiovisual room - I am sure the Deputies will hear about it at their parliamentary party meetings today. Some of the parents said they did not want their children, who were neurodiverse, to end up institutionalised, but it is our job to make sure they do not end up in jail.

Investing in sports facilities, arts programmes and community spaces in working class areas and communicating with our young people can give them a purpose and a sense of belonging and ownership because they are equal citizens in this State. We have to address the economic inequality and create a just society. Mar a deir an seanfhocal, mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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Statements on diverting young people from crime is an interesting concept and something I would talk about every day if I could. However, statements without follow on action leaves us nowhere. We have had all the evidence and research and we know what brings young people into crime. We have known for decades now.

If you imagine the portrait of a young person, I obviously think about Dublin Central and the north inner city, the places I am familiar with and where I grew up. Imagine them all over the country. No young person fills out an application to involve themselves in crime. There is not a website you go to say you would like to pick that profession and you would like to get involved in that sort of behaviour that is disadvantageous both to the person and the community in which they were brought up. That is far from what brings a young person into crime. Before we talk about what diverts a young person from crime, we must make sure we start by addressing what brings that person to those conditions in the first place.

It is always going to be poverty. It is always going to be trauma. It is always going to be generational neglect. It is always going to be a sense that this is not a place that is built for you; be that the education system or the world in which other people have an advantage over them that would just seem normal, like a comfortable home, a safe upbringing and all of those things. They are not the reality. I often think about the quote from Frankenstein when I think about what crime is. It reads that when all good to me became lost, "evil thenceforth became my good.".

We have criminal and gang networks that are building the kind of structure that fills in where the State has removed itself. There are very obvious examples and I might come to them shortly but this is about neglect. It is neglect that creates the conditions of a poisoned orchard where the fruit of that will emerge in a way that is not good for any of us. We should always be willing to address that first. We need to build structures that are safe and where young people feel seen and supported and where the issues they have, whether through how they came into the world, the conditions of trauma, the poverty or the sense of anger that builds, can be addressed.

There are reports going back decades that address this and point this out yet we have not had the action to back it up. Of course, there are going to be calls for more policing. I make calls for more policing quite regularly in this Chamber. We need community gardaí in our cities, our villages and in our towns. Of course we do. We need gardaí that know a person's name and understand the environment they are asked to police but gardaí on their own will not solve this. Gardaí cannot be expected to be social workers or youth workers. Our court system was not built for that type of prevention. It was built with a Humpty Dumpty approach of when things fall down, then we step in and the cycle repeats and will continue to repeat.

Even over the last couple of weeks, there has been a lot of focus placed on Dublin and calls for more gardaí. I then heard to great fanfare that 60 new public order units would be sent into Dublin city. More gardaí are absolutely welcome but the style of garda is what will make a difference. Public order units have a very specific function. They can only be called in when certain conditions are met and when things have already broken down. What most of us would much rather see is gardaí on the ground and who would be in our community centres and building relationships.

That will not be addressed with public order policing alone. Far from it.

Sport was the original diversion programme. Sport has been for many young people a space where they build their confidence, find their mentors - the one or two good adults in their lives - and build identities for themselves outside of crime. It is where a young person would learn discipline, teamwork, emotional regulation and, most importantly, a sense of belonging. Sport should not just be about the medals or the achievements at the end. It is actually about all the young people getting to feel included and, within that inclusion, building their confidence and sense of place. Sports clubs, youth programmes and community safety groups do this work every single day, often with no recognition or resourcing from the State. It should also be pointed out that when those 37% cuts to community programmes happened during the period of austerity, they devastated the infrastructure by which young people could emerge into an environment that was catered to their needs.

In my constituency of Dublin Central, specifically in Dublin 1, which is often talked about but rarely if ever really understood, I think it surprises many people to learn there is no 11-a-side football pitch. Many Teachtaí Dála who represent different constituencies often find that the GAA club or the sports facility is the centre of their constituency. It is the place where you go to connect and make friends. Imagine, an area like Dublin 1, the north inner city, does not have access to an 11-a-side football pitch. I know it is the same in Deputy Cummins's constituency, in Dublin 8, where they won a long campaign just to get a football pitch. Imagine that basic amenity just not being provided. Resourcing went into the inner city a couple of years ago following the well-documented feud. There has been the north inner city task force in the six or seven years that have passed since. It is often lauded in here. Other TDs ask for something similar in their own areas. Imagine over €15 million being spent and still not having a football pitch.

The eyes of the country were brought onto Dublin Central during the general election because a particular individual with a high profile ran. When he was talked about, he was often referred to in the context of the boxing club that he helped found. Did that not ring alarm bells for anybody? When the State removes itself, particular individuals have to step in and provide basic amenities. That is what happens in the absence of a state. If there is no access to boxing clubs, sports pitches or sports clubs, other actors will fill that space for us. Then we ask, "How did that happen?" It happens in the absence of a state.

There have been multiple instances in Dublin Central - for example, in Fairview Park - where kids have gone to play football every week but cars have driven onto and over the pitches and then the kids cannot play football there for the next couple of months. Sports clubs like Sheriff YC, East Wall Bessborough, Montpelier and Belvedere do absolutely amazing work in fostering environments in which young people can feel safe, develop their identities, grow their confidence and have that sense that they can be anything because they have found a place there. Every single month, many such clubs struggle to keep the lights on. I find that incredible. If we are going to talk about diverting young people from crime, let us talk about what the State has to do in terms of going in with full resourcing and full vigour and with the belief that this works and makes a difference. Somehow, it still does not happen. I find it difficult to explain this to my constituents and those sports clubs when they come looking for funding to buy boxing bags. We are talking about places that deal with young people and their families who are at genuine risk of poverty, yet they do not have access to basics such as gloves and the parents are asked to spend €10 or €20 a week. The State should be doing that.

In the absence of that, I was at City Hall a couple of weeks ago when a sports club network was founded for groups and sports clubs in the inner city. There were about 200 people there - all sports clubs, football clubs, rugby clubs, darts clubs, swimming clubs. They were dealing with about 2,000 to 3,000 young people and all they were asking for was support in order that they could do that work. I do not doubt for a second that there are funding grants, but it is very clear there is one group of people who have access and there are others who do not. That is what this is about: who has access to be able to take the time to fill out those forms and who does not. That situation is not in equilibrium.

When it comes to what investment and prevention look like, there are models that work. We have talked with the Minister about rising knife crime a number of times. The Minister's response to increases in knife crime has been simply to increase sentencing. If somebody carries a knife or uses a knife, he or she should feel the full force of the law, but that will not address knife crime. It will not address the means by which a person chooses, out of fear or abandonment or whatever forces that person to pick up a knife in a manner that very few of us can imagine, to take the next step. Nobody who is engaged in that behaviour is going to think about how it used to be a five-year sentence but is now seven years. That is not the mindset of a person engaged in that behaviour. Until we realise that proper prevention measures and intervention require resources, we will continue to have these conversations. We can increase the sentence to ten years or 15 years; it will not make a difference.

Real investment looks like the expansion of youth diversion programmes, not just in name or in scope, but in staffing and funding, and the recognition that every young person should have access to tailored support. It is about treating sport and youth services as essential infrastructure, building proper facilities, ensuring disability access and giving clubs the resources to meet existing need.

We know the consequences of inaction. We see them all the time. We see them in the rising stats. The consequences of inaction will continue to be courts that are full and prisons that are overcrowded. If we ignore trauma, we pay for it later. It is a simple fact. Hurt people will hurt people. It costs us more in terms of societal impact to clean up the damage than it would cost in terms of investment to prevent it. We need trained mediators. A lot of this requires funding and courage, not just statements, but genuine action that backs it up with evidence-based solutions, understanding the research that is decades-old and just going in there with vigour to say it does not have to be this way. We can have better outcomes for our young people.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I was a professional youth worker for many years. I have spoken about this with the Minister of State in the House previously. I will jump at any opportunity to speak about young people's lives and experiences. I just hope that there is nobody in charge of or responsible for youth justice or youth crime scratching their heads as to why we are where we are in society. It is fairly straightforward, actually. Without trying to sound too simplistic, young people's behaviour, circumstances and consequences are caused by the communities, societies and environments that they live in and grow up in. We all acknowledge that. If that were a starting point for addressing the structural inequality and the cyclical poverty that young people face, and asking why as opposed to what, it would be a phenomenal starting point in trying to understand a little better why young people who engage in criminal behaviour do so. There is always a why, there is always a person and there is always someone who, deep down, just wants hope, wants leadership, wants a different story sometimes. That is where we can step in and be those leaders, provide that hope and provide the circumstances in which young people can thrive and achieve their potential in communities.

When I was a youth justice worker in Newbridge Youth Project, the CAN project in County Kildare, with Adele, Ciara and Olivia, we genuinely did life-changing work. It changed our lives as youth workers and it changed young people's lives. I can personally guarantee that if every community had a professional youth project or a youth justice project, we would see the outcomes for a generation of young people change overnight. A study done many years ago put an economic cost on that, whereby for every €1 we invested in young people's lives in different services, it saved the State multiples of that in the long run. I was a youth worker during the recession and I saw first hand the impact of those costs and cuts. We are still as a sector coming back and regaining confidence and trust in the future of the sector. I implore the Government to do whatever it can to maximise professional youth work services and Garda youth diversion services.

The last point I will make is about restorative justice. I would love to learn more about the Government's commitment to that. Is it possible to amend the Children Act 2001 to put some legislative support behind the Garda to empower JLOs to use that as much as possible?

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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Like my colleague, I was a youth worker for many years and worked on the school completion programme. Anyone who has worked with young people knows just how amazing they are, how hopeful they are and how clear they are in their vision for the future. They love their friends and their families.

When things are going well for young people, it is a positive experience to be around them. However, Ireland has a real difficulty with young people. Yesterday, I went to an event with the Ombudsman for Children, who was talking about the deaths of children and the fact that there needed to be a review. There are 200 parents protesting outside Leinster House because of a lack of appropriate school places and the supports that go with them. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan talked about mother and baby homes. The list goes on. Children in care age out and end up in homelessness. As Deputy Gannon said, poverty and adverse childhood experiences can significantly divert the pathway a young person takes. Regardless of which party we come from, if any, it is incumbent on Members of the Thirty-fourth Dáil to get our act together and do everything we can to ensure that everything is in place. A good starting point would be restoring funding for youth services, Garda youth diversion projects, school completion programmes and other services like them. Funding is being restored but only to pre-austerity levels while the cost of everything has gone up. Everybody is saying that. If we could get on track with that, those youth services and programmes could take in more young people.

In the last few seconds I have, I will note that I am from Dublin South-Central and there are no playing pitches in Dublin 8. We have been fighting for this for a really long time. Young people have to hang out on the road because there is nowhere else. When young people hang out on the road, it is not antisocial behaviour. It is their equivalent of a café.

Peter Roche (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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As an east Galway representative, I will speak not just about diverting young people from criminal activity, but about something deeper, that is, how we give young people a life to choose so that they do not fall into crime in the first instance. When we talk about prevention, we must talk about access to services, safe spaces and support systems. Young people need somewhere to go, something to do and someone to listen. Most young people need to be understood. A simple sports club, a youth café, a creative project and a space where they can simply speak and be heard are not luxuries, but essentials. In far too many areas, including parts of my own constituency, these options are very limited or non-existent. The evidence is clear, however. When we invest in community-based outlets, youth engagement and local leadership and support, we give young people real alternatives. We give them self-esteem, structure and connection. We need to stop treating youth justice as a crisis response system and start treating it as a chance to build up rather than clean up.

Alongside local supports, we need to recognise the growing influence of social media on our young people's lives. Today's teenagers are growing up in a world where much of their identity, self-worth and connection is shaped online. Social media can be a force for creativity and belonging but it can also fuel anxiety, impulsive behaviour, peer pressure and isolation. Platforms designed for instant gratification and public validation can distort a young person, which can lead to risky and harmful behaviour. That is why any serious prevention strategy must now include digital education and media literacy, teaching young people how to think critically, navigate safely and value themselves beyond likes, trends and viral challenges.

Let me be clear, in that the most sustainable and effective model is a preventative one. If we act early in schools, communities and families, we will reduce the need for intervention later. It is not just about better outcomes socially; it is a smarter use of our resources. It costs far less to support a young person through education, mentorship and youth services than to deal with the consequences of crime, trauma and incarceration down the line. However, when we look at the national picture and at east Galway in particular, there are gaps in services.

Galway East is a large and geographically spread constituency with growing towns and rural areas facing some of the same pressures as urban centres. I refer to social isolation, economic challenges and digital vulnerability. In communities like Athenry, Loughrea, Gort and Mountbellew, young people face tough choices and tough environments. If we are serious about prevention, we need to provide these communities with the same level of support that is being made available elsewhere. We simply cannot have an eircode lottery when it comes to giving young people a second chance or a first opportunity.

Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Ar dtús báire, ní féidir linn a rá cé chomh tábhachtach is atá an t-ábhar seo agus an luach a bhaineann le polasaí éifeachtach anseo ach an oiread. The importance of diverting young people away from crime cannot be overstated. It is a deeply important thing and the underlying principle has to be that prevention is better than cure. Although it does not mean that people are beyond the scope of policies if they have been involved in criminality, the reality is that it is increasingly difficult to undo the damage of being involved in certain criminality once it has happened. We are much better off investing in programmes that save people from ever going down that road or finding themselves in that situation.

The value of diversion cannot be overstated. The 8,404 young people who were in the Garda youth diversion programme in 2022 benefited from it. It is impossible to say how effective that programme has been. We do not know how many other young people did not get into that programme and benefit from it. It yields dividends tenfold if it is effective. I come from a background of criminal law and defending young people who have been involved in or accused of being involved in criminality so I have seen these people up close and in person. I have heard their stories and I understand the circumstances that brought about that involvement. To be perfectly honest, it is very rarely accidental. If you superimpose a map of those who have become involved in criminality onto a map of disadvantage, it is very clear why it happens. Not providing young people with the opportunity and option to get out of that is part of the problem. The evidence linking where you come from with criminality is very clear. It is not necessarily something that is geographically defined although there are definitely concentrations. From the people I have represented, I know there are areas, particularly areas of Dublin, that are over-represented. That is not a reflection on the people who live in those areas but it is a reflection on investment in those communities and the options available to people who grew up in them.

I will raise an issue regarding my own area that I have raised before. I live in Honeypark in Dún Laoghaire. It is a lovely place to live but we have had issues in the local area with young people who do not have alternative options, facilities to entertain them or sports facilities. One of the greatest pressures on Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown at the moment is the lack of playing pitches for the many sports clubs that want to provide facilities for kids who are in exactly this boat to do things other than the things they might otherwise end up getting involved in.

There are a couple of approaches that we need to take to this. It is without doubt that we need to look at where there are problems and focus our efforts there but, as a general rule, we need to invest in communities and community facilities, particularly sports facilities, to give young people options to do other things. We also need to give gardaí the confidence and power to deal with issues when they arise. One of the issues that people raise with me all the time in Dún Laoghaire, particularly in the context of antisocial behaviour, which is the thin edge of the wedge as regards youth criminal activity, is that we should encourage gardaí not to take the view that nothing can be done when those involved are children.

We should also look at parental responsibility, which is something we do not focus on enough. Children do not get involved in criminality off their own bat. It happens because of a series of failures at societal, community and family level. There is no doubt about that. Parents need to take responsibility for their children. That is very clear. However, I know from speaking to gardaí in my area that they feel that, if they come across a situation where young people are involved in something, they cannot intervene or that, if they do intervene, the courts system will not deal with those people in an effective way.

With regard to young people who have involved themselves in crime and ultimately paid the price of being imprisoned, the most recent figures, which I believe are from 2024, show that 84% of young adults under 21 reoffended within three years. That is an appalling recidivism rate. Unfortunately, it reflects poorly on us in this House and in this society. We need to deal with that. Many years ago, when I worked in this House as an adviser, I visited a young offenders institution in Cheshire in England that had reduced the recidivism rate among young people to 16%. It had done this by bringing them into a very expensive prison system in which they had freedom to operate and from which they could walk away at any time, although they knew that, if they did, they would not be allowed back.

While in there, they had to take responsibility for their conduct, make their beds, keep their rooms clean, get up early in the morning, get their breakfast, learn a trade and be involved in a programme that resulted in a particular outcome.

This is the type of thing we need to invest in. Let us be real, however; it is not cheap. If we want to reap the dividends that come with diverting young people away from criminality, we also have to be prepared to pay the financial cost, because it is expensive. Investment in young people is expensive but the idea is that a generation from now we will reap the dividends of having young people who understand that crime is not the only option. We can therefore compete with those on the streets who seek to draw them into criminality, tell them they can make easy money or get whatever it might be - jackets, runners and so on - and that this will somehow compensate for the damage that will be done to them in later life. Let us make sure they are equipped with the proper tools to allow them to make the decisions they have to make to be on a path that results in a positive, constructive approach to society. That is what we want for all our young people. We in this House have to be willing to invest in the products that will bring about those dividends and in policies that will ensure young people have options when they go out of their homes and away from their families in order that they will not be drawn into attractive alternatives but will instead avail of opportunities that will bring them into a fruitful adulthood, one we can all be proud of.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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It is always difficult to follow Deputy Ward, especially when he has been so knowledgeable of and engaging on the topic under discussion. I have been listening for the past couple of hours, both up in my office and since I came into the Chamber. There were similarities with what many people said, but I was struck by one statement. Someone said that this is quite a simple problem. It is anything but simple. I will not say who said it, but it is anything but a simple problem. It is very complex. The solutions are many, and the causes are also many. The situation is difficult to break down.

As Deputy Ward said, there are some opportunities. He said it will not be easy; we know it will not be easy or cheap. We know we have to make an effort. As many of us know, as I stated last week on a similar issue and as Deputy Roche alluded to, we face difficulties with social media. It is one of the new issues we face. No previous generation has ever faced those sorts of complications and the influences that come with them. That is part of the problem. As a parent and a coach who works in schools, I see the difficulties facing young people. We also know the opportunities and education facilities that need to be available, and we are aware that we need to encourage young people. There is full employment. We have a good education system that is the envy of other countries. The skill sets can be there. We need to push all our people and show them all the opportunities – educational courses, skills, plumbing trades – we can show them. These are important.

A number of Deputies referred to the need for facilities. As someone who has been heavily involved in their community as director of both a youth centre and a sports centre, I know the importance of sports facilities. However, sport is not a solution for every child. A child who does not want to play sport might also not want to be in these centres. They want to just hang out with their friends. We need to reach everyone.

If there are indications that a young person may be going down the wrong path, community gardaí are important. I see the importance of community gardaí in my area in Leixlip, Celbridge and Maynooth. They do Trojan work. The knowledge they have of the individual people and all of those in the community, be it councillors, TDs, people who work in shops, schools and young people, is impressive. What they do is impressive. I spoke yesterday in the Dáil and to the Taoiseach about the importance of supporting local gardaí and ensuring that we have the numbers. Part of that is community supports. That is why it is so important. If we do not have gardaí in place, we have to respond to issues after they happen. It is about prevention. We are trying to prevent people from going down a certain path. That is where the community garda is important. We know of the involvement of different groups with young people. In North Kildare, I see the importance of In Sync, previously Kildare Youth Services. It is involved with families, groups, community centres and individual estates. The work it does can stop young people going down certain paths. That is where we want to get to. Young people are the future of the country. How we support them will be evidence of the success or otherwise of this Government.

As a parent, a coach and a public representative, in the past I have done the best I could locally. It is important on the national stage to continue to push that forward. I will push the Government where I can to get involved with our young people, be it in the form of outreach on football pitches or in community centres. That is one way. Supporting our gardaí is another. It is incumbent on us to ensure that there are opportunities for all our young people in any way they want or need.

Ireland is a successful country. We talk about the wealth we have but we need to make sure it is channelled to the right places. I will continue to ensure that there are opportunities for our young people to be diverted from crime and that they have all the opportunities they need to live successful lives.

Ann Graves (Dublin Fingal East, Sinn Fein)
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Our young people are our greatest resource. We need to start by acknowledging that. We also need to support and invest in them. I acknowledge the great work done by the youth services in my area in Fingal east, including Crosscare, Youthreach, the north Fingal youth diversion programme and all the local clubs that work with our young people. Diverting young people from criminal activity must be based on international best practice and in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ensuring young people’s legal rights and safeguards are fully respected. Projects must be community-based, multi-agency initiatives that seek to divert young people who have been involved in antisocial or criminal behaviour or those identified as being at risk of slipping into the criminal justice system. Programmes must be adequately resourced to provide suitable activities to facilitate personal development, promote civic responsibility and improve long-term employment prospects. These projects contribute to improving the quality of life within communities and enhancing relations between gardaí and communities.

While gardaí play an important role, it should not be left to them alone. We also need to look urgently at an education programme for youths on the implications, damage and consequences of carrying knives. This is a huge problem. The work of protecting our children from crime is multifaceted. It involves early intervention and preventative work, diversion from crime, improving education attainment, reducing substance misuse and improving use of leisure and recreational time. Positive outcomes in these areas of young persons’ lives are proven to lead to a reduction in their likelihood of offending or reoffending.

Consecutive Governments have wasted opportunities to invest in our young people. Following the most recent budget, the National Youth Council of Ireland said, "NYCI called for a budget to renew the social contract with young people, but this hasn’t been delivered, and young people at the margins have been overlooked." This is a shocking indictment of a Government that applauds itself for record budget surpluses. Once again, those at risk and the vulnerable, especially our younger people, do not benefit from the wealth of this nation.

Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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If we want to divert young people from becoming involved in criminality, we need a dual approach. The first is ensuring young people have proper supports, services and amenities in their areas, that they have hope and that they feel they have the opportunity to meet their full potential regardless of their backgrounds. The second is that we need a community approach that steers young people away from crime. The last thing any of us wants to see is a young person ending up in the courts and going to prison. A criminal conviction can do serious damage to a young person's future prospects. We need the Educational Welfare Service to be given the resources necessary to ensure that children attend school regularly and to support families that need it.

We have also seen the benefit across communities of ensuring that young people have spaces they can socialise in that are accessible outside school hours at weekends and in the evenings and that do not come at a cost. I have noticed, particularly in the context of many of the new estates being built in my constituency, that there are houses but that we do not have communities.

We should not have to wait years until we get the community centres, playgrounds and all of the other facilities communities need.

Another major problem and one that contributes hugely to criminality is drug and alcohol addiction. Supports and services need to be in place for drug and alcohol addiction. On top of all of this, we need policing that can identify young people who are at risk of offending and steer them away from that path. That works but it takes resources. I commend the work of the Garda youth diversion programme and urge the Minister to ensure that this programme is expanded and resourced. We all know, from all walks of life, that early intervention works and is so important. To do that, we need more community gardaí who are out and about, talking in our youth clubs and talking to residents and business. In Coolock, for example, we currently only have eight community gardaí whereas in 2015, we had 16.

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)
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The key to addressing the diversion of young people from criminality is the provision of services right across the whole spectrum including education, health, community, and recreation services and, of course, employment. Those services must be properly funded and staffed. As others have said, this is not cheap but society gets back in spades what it gives in funding for these services. These services are not just self-financing; society get back in spades what it puts into them. Talk of diverting at the teenage stage is simply too late. We need to start with the provision of these services at community crèches with the provision of childcare services. I acknowledge the work done by huge numbers of volunteers right across the country, particularly in community organisations, recreational services and sports clubs. I am well aware of the great work being done by the community childcare facility in my own home town of Clonmel, Clever Clogs in Elm Park, which provides a high-quality service. I salute the manager there, Ms Clare McDermott, and her staff for the work they do. I am also involved in sporting clubs, including Old Bridge Football Club, which is based in the community and provides activities and a vital service for young people. Community organisations such as the Waterford and Tipperary Community Youth Service provide invaluable services to young people. In the context of our education services, transition year students are involved in the community, not just in south Tipperary, but throughout the country.

Community gardaí have been mentioned and they are a vital element in this area. They work in the community, become involved with community services, local sports clubs and community organisations. They know families and the young people on the ground and form relationships and friendships with them. They can identify early on the difficulties that might arise down the road and can divert young people away from criminal and antisocial activity. There is an obvious and established link between criminality and poverty, mental health problems, addiction to both alcohol and drugs, as well as domestic violence. I want to refer to the Le Chéile mentoring programme in particular, which is hugely successful and beneficial. It caters for young people between the ages of 12 and 24 who are usually referred to it through the Garda youth diversion programme. These are young people who have either committed an offence or are at risk of committing an offence. The programme provides a one-to-one mentoring service on a weekly basis for approximately three hours per week. The idea is that the mentor is a role model for the young person.