Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

523. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of Garda youth diversion projects in each division by year since 2013 to date in 2020, in tabular form. [41803/20]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy will be aware, Garda Youth Diversion Projects (GYDPs) are a fundamental support to the operation of the statutory Garda Diversion Programme and provide a vital ingredient in enhancing community policing partnerships. The projects are community based multi-agency crime prevention initiatives, which are funded directly by my Department.

GYDPs seek to divert young people who have become involved, or are at risk of becoming involved, in crime/anti-social behaviour away from future involvement with the Criminal Justice System. They are primarily targeted at 12-17 year old young people in communities where a specific need for the service has been identified. On average, the Garda Youth Diversion Projects engage with between 3,500 and 4,000 young people across the state in any one year. 

Currently there are some 105 Garda Youth Diversion Projects. The intention is to further develop the service so that it is available to every child in the State who could benefit from it, through an ongoing expansion of existing services and where necessary the foundation of new projects.

Further, the projects are being developed to provide family support to the parents of young people participating in the projects and are undertaking early intervention and preventative work. The role of the projects in relation to harder-to-engage young people is being enhanced and extended as part of the evolving Youth Justice system.  

My Department is supporting ongoing development of practice in GYDPs through the Action Research Project led by the University of Limerick. The Action Research Project works directly with front-line Youth Justice Workers from local projects to develop interventions and best practice. Based on initial outcomes from the Action Research Project and evaluations of a number of pilot projects, it is intended to develop proposals to expand the existing services, to ensure national coverage and a stronger focus on difficult issues such as the hard-to-reach cohort.

These issues are addressed in the draft Youth Justice Strategy 2020-2026, which is due to be published in the coming weeks.

The number of Garda youth diversion projects in each division by year since 2013 to date in 2020, is shown in the table below.