asked the Minister for Justice the steps which have been taken to establish a Juvenile Section of the Garda Síochána to deal with all Garda decisions regarding juvenile delinquency as recommended in the final report of the Task Force on Child Care Services.
Written Answers. - Juvenile Delinquency.
628.
Limerick East): The establishment of specialised units, such as that recommended in the main report of the Task Force on Child Care Services, to have responsibility for all Garda decisions relating to juvenile delinquency, is a matter primarily for the Garda authorities who are not satisfied that such a development in this case would be conducive to the most effective utilisation and deployment of Garda resources to deal with the problem of juvenile delinquency.
Their view was that the matter could best be dealt with by an expansion of the existing juvenile liaison scheme and there has been a substantial increase in the number of juvenile liaison officers since the report referred to was published. At present there are 70 juvenile liasion officers assigned to 37 major centres of population.