Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 12 Mar 1998

Vol. 488 No. 6

Written Answers. - Juvenile Liaison Service.

Willie Penrose

Question:

116 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of juvenile liaison officers for each county and each postal region in Dublin; the number of cases handled by the juvenile liaison service in each county and each postal district in Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6757/98]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue)

The Garda authorities are responsible for the detailed deployment of Garda personnel to individual areas.

They have informed me that the territorial area covered by a Garda juvenile liaison officer is defined on the basis of a Garda district or division as appropriate. This does not always conform to county boundaries or to postal boundaries. In addition statistics are compiled at the National Juvenile Office on a divisional basis. The current deployment of juvenile liaison officers is set out by the Garda authorities on a divisional basis in the following table along with the number of cautions administered in 1996 in respect of referrals made during 1996.

Deployment of Juvenile Officers (current) and details of Cautions administered in 1996

Garda Division	Gardaí	Sergeant	Details of Cautions 1996
Dublin Metropolitan Area North	12	1	935
Dublin Metropolitan Area South	7	1	1,072
Dublin Metropolitan Area East	6	1	508
Dublin Metropolitan Area North Central	3	1	446
Dublin Metropolitan Area South Central	4	1	362
Dublin Metropolitan Area West (Created in May 1997)	4
Louth/Meath	3		525
Longford/Westmeath	3		313
Laois/Offaly	2		308
Carlow/Kildare	3		501
Wexford	3		545
Waterford/Kilkenny	5		721
Tipperary	2		103
Cork West	2		270
Cork City	5	1	881
Cork North	2		609
Kerry	2		265
Limerick	1	1	451
Clare	1		385
Galway West	2		465
Roscommon/Galway East	2		217
Mayo	2		242
Sligo/Leitrim	1		209
Donegal	3		503
Cavan/Monaghan	2		348
Total*	82	7	11,184

* This total does not include staff at the Garda National Juvenile Office, Harcourt Square, who monitor and co-ordinate all matters relating to juveniles on a national basis.

The National Juvenile Office which co-ordinates the whole juvenile liaison scheme is located at DMA headquarters in Harcourt Square. It is staffed by one superintendent, one inspector, two sergeants and four clerical assistants.

I would like to emphasise that as some offenders are referred on more than one occasion during any particular year i.e. repeat offenders, the number of referrals is always greater than or equal to the number of individual offenders.

I should also point out that cautions can be informal or formal and this distinction will affect the amount and type of follow up visits and supervision for the JLO concerned. Apart from the referral dealt with by way of caution, referrals where a prosecution is recommended still usually require a JLO to visit the offender's home at least once.