Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 10 March 2021
695. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Justice the number of full-time youth justice workers, family support and early intervention posts that are employed for each of the Garda youth division projects in the Dublin north Garda division in tabular form. [12699/21]
View answerThe Deputy may be interested to know that there are currently 105 Garda Youth Diversion Projects (GYDPs) nationwide. The intention is to further develop this service so that it is available to every child in the State who could benefit from it, through an ongoing expansion of existing services and the foundation of new projects where necessary.
The table below outlines the number of persons employed for each of the GYPDs in the DMR North Garda Division.
|
Project |
Location |
Youth Justice Workers |
Family Support Workers |
Total per project |
|
North Fingal (Balbriggan) |
Balbriggan |
4 |
1 |
5 |
|
BYB |
Ballymun |
3 |
1 |
4 |
|
Donnycarney |
Santry |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
Jets |
Coolock |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
Keep |
Coolock |
3 |
1 |
4 |
|
North Bay |
Balbriggan |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
Woodale |
Coolock |
3 |
0 |
3 |
|
Total |
19 |
3 |
22 |
My Department is supporting the ongoing development of practice in Garda Youth Diversion Projects through the Action Research Project led by the University of Limerick. The Action Research Project works directly with front-line Youth Justice Workers from local projects to develop interventions and best practice. Based on initial outcomes from the Action Research Project, and evaluations of a number of pilot projects, it is intended to develop proposals to expand the existing services. This would ensure national coverage and a stronger focus on difficult issues such as the hard-to-reach cohort.
As part of this work, family support workers and early intervention workers have been provided to a limited number of GYDPs on a pilot basis. In such instances, projects were asked to express a preference as to whether they would prefer to participate in the family support or early intervention pilot.
It is intended that these interventions will be expanded in the new Youth Justice Strategy 2021-2026, which I intend to finalise and which will be brought to Government shortly.
