Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will touch on a few points there. The length of time An Garda Síochána can hold a person in respect of knife crime is going to change in the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill going through the Houses and which I hope will be enacted before the summer recess.

The Senator mentioned the expert forum on antisocial behaviour. A piece of work is being done through the forum to look at other jurisdictions, Scotland being one of them. In Scotland they engage to a significant degree with the hospitals, the data and the statistics and this then feeds into the policy they have. That work is ongoing at the moment to try to inform what we are doing.

Again, coming back to the preventative piece, the Youth Justice Strategy 2021-2027 saw an increase of about €6 million last year and funding is now at about €24 million which means we can expand on the youth diversion programmes and can invest to a greater degree in more communities. This year alone, four new programmes are being developed. Investment is happening, research is under way and there is a strong criminal justice response in regard to the penalties there. We are also trying to increase Garda numbers. All of this, collectively, is the way we can respond.

On the Senator’s last point, we must ensure people own what is happening in their communities. We have three pilot programmes for our community safety partnerships. We have Drogheda and a number of other areas where similar projects are under way. This will now roll out into communities over the next few years to ensure that not just the gardaí, but our health services, education services, community members and everybody, have a say in setting a plan as to what keeps them safe in their areas.