Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for giving me the opportunity to raise this important matter. As you said, the two children concerned are aged approximately ten years and are running wild in a flat complex close to the centre of this city. They are not attending any school although they have done so in the past. However, because they were disruptive and unsuitable the school authorities in the area are now either unwilling or unable to deal with them.
One of the students was assessed extensively at a number of centres. Recently when I raised this matter by way of a Dáil question the same student was offered the opportunity to be assessed in Belfast. This student comes from a broken family and is living with his father. His mother is not residing with them. Unfortunately, his father was not prepared to allow the student go to Belfast to be assessed.
The other student is running around the flat complex in question and is constantly in trouble with the Garda Síochána who are doing their best to cope. Apparently there is little they can do because of the way the law is structured. As a consequence, this youngster is proving a problem in the flat complex which, in any event, is confronted with many other problems.
These children, as I said, come from broken homes which have faced many difficulties during the years. If nothing is done problems will arise in the future. I gather that a garda who spoke recently at a public meeting said that by looking at a seven year old child he can make a reasonably educated guess as to whether that child will be a criminal 20 to 30 years on.
I have no doubt at all that the garda in question is quite right as it is easy enough to identify the factors that lead young people to become criminals. If we do not intervene, obviously that is what awaits these students down the line. Even if we do not take that aspect into consideration they are creating problems for the people who live in the area who, as I have said already, have enough difficulties as things stand. Over the past few days there has been a heightened interest and awareness of the problems that some children face. A survey was published in the past few days which shows that out of a total of 2,000 students in 11 schools in Dublin, some 78 students were mildly disruptive and 76 were very disruptive. This is part of a widespread problem. The survey shows that 7 per cent of the students in that sample were giving rise to problems, of whom 3.5 per cent were giving rise to very serious problems. The parents of these students are at their wits ends and they feel very little is being done to deal with the problems they are trying to cope with in difficult circumstances. The social agencies and the social support organisations and personnel in the area are also very concerned and indeed I have had quite a number of representations from them in this regard. Indeed, I had representations on this matter as recently as this morning from a person who is involved in the social services in this area.
I hope the Minister will be able to do something about this problem generally. I wish to appeal specifically to the Minister to try to have something done in the case of these two youngsters, whose details are available to him. They live in an inner city flat complex, and that has its own difficulties. I honestly believe the people there have enough to contend with without this type of problem festering away. The families are under enough pressure and they badly need support. I sincerely hope the Minister will be able to do something positive about this problem.
