Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator. This is a really important question on an area I worked in previously and in which I have some experience. On behalf of the Minister for Justice, Deputy Helen McEntee, and the Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, I thank the Senator for raising this matter.

Our approach to youth justice in Ireland is that children who come into contact with the criminal justice system are still children. Youth diversion projects, YDPs, are community-based, youth crime prevention initiatives which seek to divert young people who have been or are at risk of becoming, involved in anti-social and-or criminal behaviour.

A top priority for the Department of Justice is the expansion and deepening of the services offered to young people by the YDPs, which are fully funded by the Department. On average, the YDPs engage with about 4,000 young people across the State in any one year. Last year, the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, published the first evaluation report of the YDPs to help further our understanding of the structure, conduct and impacts of our youth diversion projects.

The report noted the very positive work ongoing in the YDPs already, including strong governance and high levels of engagement from participants and their families. Several areas for improvement were also identified, including better availability of YDPs at weekends and maximising the use of administrative data and other research to inform service development. It is clear that the positive impacts of YDPs are being felt by participants, families and the wider community. The evaluation identified decreasing risk levels among participants in respect of peer relations, leisure and recreation, personality and behaviour, and attitudes and orientation.

The Minister for Justice is committed to ensuring that every young person in the State who needs these services has access to them. Considerable work is being done to expand our network of YDPs to achieve full nationwide coverage.This includes the establishment of a number of new youth diversion projects, as well as expanding the catchment area of existing projects. The Senator mentioned the uplift in recent budgets. That is most welcome. In budget 2024, the funding allocated to overall youth justice services increased by 10% to €33 million. This is facilitating an increase in the availability of YDP services in the evenings and at the weekends when many young people need them the most. It is also to provide for an increase in supports for families, hard-to-reach young people and early interventions for eight to 11-year-olds who may be at increased risk of engaging in criminal activity. We have seen, in line with the increases in youth justice funding in recent years, a similar increase in the number of YDP participants each year since 2021. Last year, 4,251 young people participated in YDP projects. As well as being the right thing to do, it is worth noting that every cent invested in our youth diversion projects will pay back in the long run. In 2024, we spent approximately €6,773 per young person participating in the YDPs. The annual cost of sending someone to prison in 2022 was over €84,000. The annual cost of detaining a child in Oberstown is over half a million euro.

The work of YDPs benefits everybody in our communities promoting pro-social activities and outcomes for young people at risk of lives of criminality. The youth diversion projects not only divert young people away from crime, they work to foster young people's talents and interest in personal development. These projects provide an essential resource to support the work of An Garda Síochána in addressing youth crime and protecting local communities. I note the Senator's stark points in terms of the uplift of the budget versus the slower rate of uptake in the YDPs themselves. The Senator has a point in respect of the capacity of universal youth services to be able to deliver. That is something I had a conversation with Ossory Youth in Kilkenny about recently. With regard to the administration and staffing of youth services generally, there is a challenge there that we need to look at in budget 2025 about the broader interaction of youth diversion projects within the universal youth services that are provided. That is something about which I will speak to the Ministers, Deputies McEntee and O'Gorman, and the Minister of State, Deputy Browne. There is a bigger challenge there about the integration element and ensuring that there are pathways for young people out of Garda youth diversion and into other youth services to help them on their onward journeys and paths. That is hugely important. There is a challenge around youth services generally in the country, given the increased demand they have and the services they provide.