Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 232: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will acknowledge that the failing of the juvenile justice system attributed to underinvestment has played a roll in the increase in serious crimes over recent years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43699/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The Deputy will be aware of the changes in recent years aimed at bringing about improvements in the youth justice system and I am pleased to say that I have secured additional resources, as published in the recent estimates, to support changes being made in this area, including the establishment of the Irish Youth Justice Service (IYJS). Funding for Young Person's Probation, which was established last year and implements certain provisions of the Children Act 2001, has increased fourfold from €1.39 million in 2006 to €6.98 million in 2007. The Garda Youth Diversion Projects, a crime prevention measure, have had budgetary increases rising from €5.3 million in 2004 to €9.8 million for 2007. I have already increased the number of projects from 64 to 84 and I intend to increase this to over 100 projects by the end of 2007.

The Youth Justice Programme in the National Development Plan commits to spending €224 million to support youth justice programmes and to further expand the number of diversion projects to almost 130 projects nationwide. It also allocates €143 million for the redevelopment of the children detention schools over the life of the Plan. In addition to the direct expenditure on youth justice the Government continues significant expenditure on programmes to promote health and well-being and on programmes to combat economic, social and educational disadvantage which are factors which impact indirectly on youth offending.

This investment is being made in the context of structural reforms in the management and development of youth justice strategy. The IYJS, which is an executive office of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, also comes within the policy environment of the Office of the Minister for Children to link up with the wider issues affecting children's lives. In committing these resources in the area of youth justice it is my view that the lives of children who offend and that of their communities will be improved and that this is being achieved through interventions aimed at rehabilitation, challenging offending behaviour and providing for the welfare and care needs of young people who come into conflict with the law.

With regard to the overall rate of crime, we need to be conscious of what the statistics taken over a prolonged period show. The crime rate per 1,000 of the population has dropped from 26 per 1,000 in 2003, the first full year of the present Government, to 24.5 per 1,000 in 2006, the lowest it has been during the period of this Government. By way of comparison, during 1995 there were 29 crimes per 1,000 population and in 1996 there were 28 crimes per 1,000 of the population. While this downward trend is welcome I have expressed concern over events that we have seen recently and I am committed to a programme of continuing development in terms of both legislation and resources.