Written answers

Wednesday, 12 May 2021

Department of Justice and Equality

Antisocial Behaviour

Photo of Seán HaugheySeán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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203. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality her plans to amend the Children (Amendment) Act 2021, the Criminal Justice Act 2006 and the Children (Amendment) Act 2015 with a view to lowering the age definition of a child from 18 years in order to make children involved in serious and violent incidents of antisocial behaviour more accountable for their actions; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24870/21]

Photo of James BrowneJames Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I am very conscious of how the impact of anti-social behaviour affects the quality of life for local communities. Preventing children getting involved in criminality, as well as diverting children away from it when they have already become involved, is a key priority for my Department. Both the Programme for Government and the Justice Plan 2021 contain a number of commitments with regard to tackling anti-social behaviour.

In line with a commitment in the Programme for Government, I have established a special expert forum on antisocial behaviour, which is considering the effectiveness of existing legislation and looking at potential new ways forward, including new powers for An Garda Síochána and additional interventions to support parenting of offenders. A subgroup of this forum has already examined the issue of misuse of scramblers and quadbikes and this work has informed the development of a new scheme aimed at tackling this issue in local areas.

As the Deputy may be aware, I also launched a new Youth Justice Strategy 2021-2027 on 15 April. Youth crime, including anti-social behaviour, can have a major impact on our communities and poses significant challenges for An Garda Síochána, as well as other Justice agencies. The factors which underlie youth crime have significant implications across a range of policy and service provisions, including Child and Family Services, Health, Education and local authority functions.

This new Strategy will respond collaboratively to the situation of vulnerable children and youngpeople, with a strong focus on diverting them away from offending, prevention and early intervention and family support, through to court processes and facilities, supervision of offenders, detention and reintegration and support post release.

Separately, as the Deputy will be aware, my Department has been developing a new community safety policy to reflect the findings and recommendations contained in the report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland. The Commission found that community safety requires a whole of Government approach in partnership with local communities. This new policy will be given a statutory basis in a new Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill, the General Scheme of which was recently approved by Government. To support and inform the policy, three Local Community Safety Partnerships are being piloted in Dublin’s North Inner City, Waterford and Longford and will run for the next two years. The Partnerships will allow local communities to identify issues of particular concern within their area and work with the relevant State services to develop a local Community Safety Plan to specifically tackle these issues.

There are no plans at this time to amend the Children (Amendment) Act 2021, the Criminal Justice Act 2006 or the Children (Amendment) Act 2015 in the manner referred to by the Deputy.

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