Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator McCormack for raising this matter. It is a great honour for me to be back in the Seanad and I hope to be here frequently. I wish to advise that, within my Department, I am delegating responsibility for youth crime to the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins. Notwithstanding that, it is an extremely important issue and I welcome the opportunity to respond to what the Senator has to say.

In terms of the judge's comments, it is important that people are fully aware of the penalties that can be imposed on children who are convicted of offences before the court. The Senator is correct in noting that the ultimate sanction is detention. However, under section 98 of the Children Act, other options are available to the courts, in particular sanctions that can be imposed upon parents or guardians. That is something that the courts need to look at more. You can find yourself in a situation, however, where a child is just not amenable to any sanction from a court or, indeed, his or her parents and where it is regrettably appropriate for the child to be detained.

The Senator is correct in what she said about Oberstown but it is not completely full. Five or six spaces are kept available for girl offenders as opposed to boy offenders. An indication of the difference between offending between sexes is that the spaces for girl offenders generally are not occupied. The boy offender sections are full.

I am extremely concerned about this matter and, because of that, I had a meeting last week with the Minister for children, Deputy Foley. We discussed what could be done to increase capacity at Oberstown. She will reflect on that to see what can be done. Obviously, some individuals can be released from Oberstown, thereby providing spaces. However, I am fully aware that unless there is the prospect of a custodial sanction being imposed, in the infrequent occasion that it is necessary, then the courts and the Garda can find themselves in a situation with juvenile delinquents where there appears to be no sanction in respect of it.

There are other options available to try to stop children continuing on the pathway of criminality. We are doing a disservice to children unless we try to correct their behaviour at that stage. If a child is involved in criminal behaviour at the age of 15, 16 or 17 years, then there is a strong likelihood that, by the time he or she gets to 18, that individual will be continuing with that behaviour and finally find himself or herself in prison immediately. There is a responsibility on us to try to divert children. That is why the youth diversion programme is useful. As the Senator will know, the youth diversion programme operates in Laois. We have 93 youth diversion programmes, with two operating in Laois. They are the Acorn project, which is operated by Youth Work Ireland Midlands, and LOOP which is operated by Foróige.

It is a complicated issue, as the Senator will appreciate, to know what to do with children who break criminal law. However, we need to focus more on the interests of the community and individuals who are the victims of that criminal behaviour. It is not much comfort to them to know that the offender is under 18 years of age.

I am looking at Oberstown. I have discussed it with the Minister, Deputy Foley. We need to provide more spaces. Since our population is increasing, we are inevitably going to need more spaces in prison and youth detention centres. That is incompatible with another ambition and policy I have, that being, to try to make community sanctions available for the purpose of a penalty being imposed.