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An Garda Síochána

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 February 2022

Tuesday, 8 February 2022

Questions (558)

Patrick Costello

Question:

558. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Justice if her Department will open a public consultation for the extension of Garda youth diversion projects to cover 18-24 year olds; the timeline for same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6007/22]

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Written answers

As the Deputy will be aware, Minister McEntee and I published the Youth Justice Strategy 2021-27 in April 2021. The Strategy is designed to provide a developmental framework to address key ongoing challenges, as well as new and emerging issues in the youth justice area.

This includes preventing offending behaviour from occurring and diverting children and young adults who commit a crime away from further offending and involvement with the criminal justice system. It will also provide for enhanced criminal justice processes, detention and post-detention measures to provide consistent support to encourage desistance from crime and promote positive personal development for young offenders.

Action 2.9.5 of the Strategy relates to assessing the potential of Youth Diversion Projects (or similar) to provide suitable diversionary programmes for the 18-24 years age group. In line with this action, my Department will shortly open a public consultation process on approaches to diverting young adults in the 18-24 age group away from crime, with a view to developing more effective measures which will lead to behaviour change.

The aim is to steer young adults away from repeated offending, and towards positive life choices. Statistically, the 18-24 age group accounts for a significant volume of offending, so we need to engage more effectively to promote behaviour change as well as confronting with the immediate effects of criminal acts.

Dedicated cross-agency oversight structures have been established to monitor and support the implementation of the Youth Justice Strategy, and these are further assisted by a Youth Justice Advisory Group, which I chair, that provides a standing forum to reflect views and concerns from the community sector and expert stakeholders. The commitment in the strategy to evidence-informed policies and practice is further enhanced through a Research Evidence into Policy Programmes and Practice (REPPP) Advisory Group which allows input from the wider research community to support the REPPP research partnership with University of Limerick.

I am pleased to note that the additional €6.7m provided for in Budget 2022 represents an increase of in excess of one third in support for youth justice services. It provides the resources to kick-start delivery of key objectives in the Youth Justice Strategy and, in particular, the programme to expand and deepen the range of supports made available through local YDP services.

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