Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the comments of Senators Flynn and Ardagh. I am always apprehensive about speaking on these issues because some people would like to think that we are condoning behaviour when we are not. People can call out behaviour as wrong. What happened in Cherry Orchard is wrong. How we challenge that is a whole different story. How we speak about and understand it is much more nuanced than one will ever see online or often even in this Chamber. Some of the commentary I saw online stated that there are no repercussions or consequences for these young men. Their lives and how generations have lived for years are the consequence. We are living with consequences every single day when we continue to bury our loved ones and our family members, and when we continue to be destroyed by chaotic drug use, by death in our community and by violence in our community.Our literal existence is often the consequence.

A garda coming into an estate or a potential day in court is not a consequence in comparison with what people are actually living within their everyday life. Of course it does not matter because, to them, they do not matter and their future does not matter. They have never mattered and their parents never mattered. How can they even begin to engage with a justice system as something that will deter them from engaging in any sort of criminal or antisocial behaviour? Their lives are already so difficult that it is not relative. You or I might be afraid of ending up having to do a stint in St. Patrick's Institution or Oberstown Children Detention Campus or of going to court because our lives are nice, safe and happy and we have a lot to lose. If you have nothing to lose, how can you even begin to think that a justice approach or asking for more gardaí will solve the problem? There is something very wrong with our society if people have nothing to lose. That is what we need to look at and invest in.