Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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527. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the extent to which support services exist to rehabilitate and educate or upskill first-time juvenile offenders with specific reference to the need to ensure that such first-time offenders do not become subject to the influence of recidivists; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44005/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The Children Act 2001, as amended, provides the statutory basis for dealing with children who come into contact with the criminal justice system. The key principle of the Children Act 2001 is that detention of a child should only be imposed as a last resort. When children come into contact with the criminal justice system there is an emphasis on the promotion of community based options in the first instance. The Irish Youth Justice Service oversees a significant investment in community based programmes to divert young people from further involvement in criminal or anti-social behaviour. In 2017, approximately €14 million was allocated by the Department of Justice and Equality to the Irish Youth Justice Service to administer Garda Youth Diversion Projects and a number of other youth diversion community-based projects. These projects also benefit from support under the European Social Fund.

My Department provides funding to the Irish Youth Justice Service for services relating to the Oberstown Children Detention Campus (Oberstown) and the Bail Supervision Scheme which has recently been established on a pilot basis.

The Bail Supervision Scheme provides more therapeutic supports in the community for children who are subject to bail conditions. The service provides a ‘wraparound’ service to the young person and their family with a prescribed reporting system back to the courts through the appropriate statutory bodies; Probation Service, An Garda Síochána and Oberstown. The scheme offers greater options to the courts in the knowledge that closer monitoring will take place through interaction with the young people, their families and communities.

If a child is remanded or sentenced to a period of detention in Oberstown, a range of rehabilitative supports are offered to every child as part of an overall programme, which focuses on the child’s individual needs and provides the framework for each child’s individual journey through detention. The focus is on developing supportive relationships with the main emphasis placed on education and rehabilitation.

The wide range of rehabilitation, education and support services provided and supported by the Irish Youth Justice Service are detailed in the Tackling Youth Crime: Youth Justice Action Plan 2014 – 2018, and a progress report covering the period 2014 to 2015 has been published and is available on my Department's website. A progress report covering the period of 2016 is currently being prepared.