Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 10 Mar 1998

Vol. 488 No. 4

Written Answers - Juvenile Liaison Scheme.

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

The Garda authorities are responsible for the detailed allocation of Garda personnel and they inform me that there are in total 93 members of the force allocated to the juvenile liaison scheme. There are 36 juvenile liaison officers (JLOs) attached to various stations in the Dublin metropolitan area region and 46 JLOs allocated to stations outside the DMA region. In addition, the national juvenile office, located at Harcourt Square, is staffed by one superintendent, one inspector, two sergeants and four clerical officers. There are also seven supervising sergeants who supervise JLOs in the DMA region and in the Limerick and Cork divisions.

The Garda authorities report that it is not possible to indicate or set a number of cases which will be allocated to a juvenile liaison officer as there are various factors which affect the workload. These factors include different forms of caution (informal and formal), different levels of supervision (intensive and regular), involvement with schools, clubs, talks to parents groups etc., and the amount of time involved in travelling depending on the geographical responsibility allocated to the particular officer.

Dealing with an offender by way of formal caution will involve a much greater involvement on the part of the JLO than would an informal caution. Likewise, intensive supervision puts greater demands on the JLO than would regular supervision.

Because of the varied factors outlined above, the Garda authorities are not in a position to give a cost per offender of referral to a juvenile liaison officer as the amount of work hours for each case will vary on the category of referral.

Incidentally, I understand that there are some 13,000 referrals a year under the juvenile liaison officer scheme.