Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to raise the issue of teenage violence. In recent years there have been many reports of teenage violence in the media and they include teenagers being violent to other teenagers in every place from Dalkey to Malahide, Rochestown and Carrigaline. Most recently, this week my home community of Cabra featured in the media. This violence is characterised by gangs of young people making random attacks on other young people. These are violent assaults and in Cabra there were a number of assaults before Christmas and again in the new year. In one incident a young man ended up in a coma and in another incident a screwdriver was used to inflict injury on another young teenager. Crowbars, hammers and bicycle parts are also being used as weapons. As if the physical injuries and violence were not enough, these violent acts are being recorded on phones and being uploaded, posted and shared on social media.

I am a founding director of the Cabra Community Policing Forum and I am a director of Cabra for Youth CLG and the Loft, Local Outreach Family Therapies. I have been working with other stakeholders locally, as I am sure others are working in other communities around the country, to support our young people and address these issues. We work with the policing forum; Dublin City Council; the Garda; the schools; the school completion programmes; the youth services; the justice youth diversion programmes; families; parents; and young people. It is important that we support our young people and it is completely unacceptable that any young person in our communities feels unsafe or has to think twice about going down to the shops, going for a walk or meeting their friends. As a community and a society we have to support our young people and address this issue. As adults and as a broader community we can do that but we also need the social media giants on board, In this instance I call on TikTok to support our society, communities and young people. I would appreciate it if the Leader would address that issue through her good offices.