2026-04-16

The issue I want to raise with the Minister today has some similarity to the last issue in that it relates to Garda action, particularly in respect of juvenile antisocial behaviour cases. "Antisocial behaviour" is an umbrella term that covers many different activities. Some will say that antisocial behaviour is just that, antisocial, but of course it encompasses criminality as well. I fear there are certain young people who are behaving antisocially, but by extension criminally, with impunity. They are not being held to account for what they are doing, for the impact they are having on local communities and specific residents, and in terms of their criminal actions. The Minister knows I have been practising in criminal law for nearly 20 years and have dealt with juvenile cases. I would be the last to suggest we should increase the criminalisation of young people. Doing so is unhelpful in many ways. I will allude briefly to the dysfunctionality of our current Children's Court system and the delays in implementing all the progressive measures that were put into the Children Act 25 years ago. However, on the flip side of that coin, you cannot have a situation in which young people, teenagers, are doing whatever they want to whomever they want without any fear of consequence. That leads to considerable lawlessness in communities and massively interrupts the ability of ordinary people living in them to enjoy their property, get on with their lives, go to work, bring their children to school and even send their children to the shop. I have met people in the Dún Laoghaire area who tell me they will not let their 12-year-old children go to the shop on their own because of kids in the area who might intimidate them, intercept them or even rob them. We cannot allow that to continue. I have raised this with the Garda. We are lucky in south Dublin's F and W districts, namely Dún Laoghaire and Blackrock, to have gardaí who are on top of their brief, who are working incredibly hard, who liaise with the communities and who are plugged into the situation. However, the problem is that they do not feel they are equipped with either the resources or, perhaps more importantly, the powers to deal with this issue. For example, a 14-year-old who engages in criminal activity in the local area, maybe at a low level, gets arrested by the Garda and is brought down to Blackrock or Dún Laoghaire Garda station cannot be left in a cell on their own, first of all. When they are there, they cannot be with one adult on their own. Two gardaí have to be with them. That takes two gardaí off the streets. They cannot be out doing the work we need them to do at a particular time. In due course, a parent is called. I acknowledge that many of these problems often stem from a lack of parental control. When the parent or guardian is called, he or she comes down to the station and the child is released into that person's custody. They are brought home and they are not even kept in the house for the rest of the night sometimes. No prosecution may flow from that. Whatever about there being no prosecution, the reality is there is a deficit at the moment in what gardaí can do to deal specifically with juvenile misbehaviour, juvenile antisocial behaviour and juvenile criminality. Obviously, the further up the scale of seriousness it goes, the greater the power of gardaí to act. At the moment, however, people in the Dún Laoghaire constituency, which is a lovely place to live and one that does not generally suffer from major crime problems, tell me that there is a growing problem with juvenile antisocial behaviour. This is a problem that exists in parks and housing estates and on main streets. In Deansgrange recently, the windows of many shops were broken overnight. That was done by one particular offender who, I understand, has been apprehended by gardaí. I do not know the details, but I am sure it will take its course within the courts. Further up the scale, gardaí may have the powers to act. That is fine. However, in terms of the stuff that impinges on ordinary people and prevents them from the peaceful enjoyment of their properties and their neighbourhoods or from going to work, school or to the shops, there is a major problem. I would love to hear the Minister's proposals for how we are going to deal with that.

I thank Deputy Ward for raising this very important issue. Obviously there is a complexity to how society should respond to criminality by people under 18 years of age but my starting point is looking at the impact it has upon victims. From the victim's point of view, as Deputy Ward has described, it is cold comfort that the person who is perpetrating the criminal act or the antisocial behaviour is, in fact, under 18 years of age. The impact of the offence or the antisocial behaviour on the individual is as significant as it would be if it was being carried out by an adult as opposed to by a child. That is why I start, as I am sure Deputy Ward does, by looking at the impact on the victim. When it is the case that criminality is being carried out or antisocial behaviour engaged in by a person under 18 years of age, as Deputy Ward will be aware from experience, we have a different statutory procedure in terms of dealing with people who are defined as children under the Children Act. Since the enactment of the Children Act a quarter of a century ago, Ireland's approach has been to divert children from the criminal justice system, with detention being, as it says in the Act, an option of "last resort". That does not mean, however, that detention is not sometimes necessary. Regrettably, sometimes the detention of children is necessary. I am pleased to say that when it comes to Oberstown, we have been able, through consultation with the Minister for children, Deputy Foley, to increase the number of spaces available for boys in Oberstown. That was done as a result of consultation I had with the Minister, Deputy Foley. An essential pillar of the child-focused approach is the Garda youth diversion programme, and that is effective. It provides a statutory basis for the Garda youth diversion programme. The intention of this programme is to divert children aged 12 to 17 years who have been engaged in such behaviour away from the criminal justice system and towards more positive, pro-social behaviour and life choices. Children who commit criminal offences are considered for admission to the diversion programme. Each such case is assessed and the director of the Garda diversion programme, the Garda superintendent, decides if the case is suitable for inclusion in the programme. I recently had the pleasure of being out in Dún Laoghaire Garda station with Deputy Ward's colleague Deputy Devlin. I met officials and the superintendent there and was extremely impressed by their commitment to policing the area. Obviously, the challenges they face when it comes to dealing with juvenile offenders is consistent with the problems that exist around the country. Young people deemed suitable by the director of the Garda youth diversion programme may be referred to the local youth diversion projects where, in collaboration with a Garda juvenile liaison officer, these projects provide supports to children to address their behaviour and engage positively with their communities. People sometimes that youth diversion programmes are not effective or successful, but there is success in respect of them. If we look at the statistics in terms of the number of people being referred to youth diversion programmes, we can see that notwithstanding the year-on-year population growth, the number of children coming to the attention of the diversion programme has generally decreased. I appreciate that this might not be of much comfort to the victim suffering from the criminality or antisocial behaviour of a person under 18 years of age but there does need to be a Garda response. If the individual child does not want to go along with the youth diversion programme, then the force of the criminal justice system must operate in the way that it should in respect of children. If we want to put in a different statutory regime that does mean amending the Children Act and having a broader conversation about whether we wish to change the way we deal with children or whether want to redefine the age beneath 16. These are very complicated issues that we need to carefully consider.

I thank the Minister for his acknowledgement of the work gardaí in Dún Laoghaire and Blackrock are doing. I was delighted to welcome him to Blackrock when he visited recently. I appreciate his attention to the issue. I also acknowledge what he said about the progressiveness of the Children Act. That is important but if we are relying on Oberstown or incarceration for children, the system has already failed at that stage. There are people locally who tell me that there are young children who will say to them when they are confronted about their criminal behaviour that they cannot be touched or be arrested or face the consequences that would apply to an adult. The younger they are, the more they believe that and as long as they believe it, they will continue to act with impunity. They will continue to disrupt the lives of lawful and law abiding citizens in our communities. It may be that a legislative response is required, but I also think that we should be having a conversation about this and asking ourselves what we need to do to ensure that there is some kind of an arrest to the antisocial behaviour that is creating victims in our local communities. As I said, the spectrum of activity ranges from bad behaviour, shouting or whatever in a local area to much more serious things like property damage to businesses, theft, robbery, assault and more serious matters. If only for the reason that we want to protect those children from the consequences of getting on a slippery slope to more serious criminality as adults, it is incumbent on us a legislature and as a State, on the Department and on An Garda Síochána to put a stop to this. We need to make sure the message gets out to those kids that if they are going to behave antisocially and criminally, there will be consequences and they will suffer them. I recognise what the Minister said about the juvenile liaison system. It has yielded results. There is no doubt about that. Maybe it needs more resources and maybe we need to make it more effective and more commonly used but there cannot be a message to young people, or children in particular, that they can behave with impunity because they cannot.

Obviously, the youth diversion programme does not mean that children cannot be arrested, convicted of offences or apprehended by gardaí. If gardaí come across youths who are involved in criminal behaviour or breaches of public order, they can apply the law in respect of them and it may be necessary at times for them to be arrested. The Deputy is right to say that this does result in further bureaucracy within a Garda station because arresting a child is treated differently to arresting an adult. That said, it still can be done and I want to assure the general public that gardaí can arrest juveniles who are involved in the commission of criminal behaviour. However, that does not mean that subsequently, after their arrest and once they go through that process, they cannot then be put on the pathway of the youth diversion programme. Deputy Ward will know that generally criminal behaviour is committed predominantly by boys and men between the ages of 14 and 30. Once they reach the latter age, they cop on and they stop engaging in criminal behaviour. The Deputy is absolutely right that we are doing a disservice to people between the ages 14 and 18 if we do not try to stop or divert them. If they are committing criminal behaviour on the last day of their 17th year, once they turn 18 they are inevitably going to end up in the adult system and will probably be incarcerated. I should have mentioned that I recall being with Deputy Ward out in Dún Laoghaire. I was impressed by what is going on out there but policing of youths is complicated. I want to try to ensure that there are greater resources for gardaí but also for young people. If youths are hanging around, which sometimes happens more in the summer months, we need to ensure that we have the services available as well so that they can do things like play football or get involved in sport and be diverted away from the criminal behaviour. However, if they are involved in criminal behaviour, the law should come down on them relatively hard because if it does not, we are doing them a disservice.