I thank Deputy Gogarty and members of the Independent Technical Group for tabling this motion on antisocial behaviour. I am very aware of the impact that antisocial behaviour - many times it is criminal behaviour - has on individuals living in local communities. Regrettably, it appears to be the case that significant numbers of people who are engaged in antisocial behaviour, or the criminal behaviour I was talking about, are under the age of 18, which we refer to as children in our law. Notwithstanding that, the effects of antisocial behaviour are significant and the effects of criminal activity by children can be very specific and significant. It can result in people suffering from physical violence, theft of personal property, destruction of shared amenities or spaces and more hidden harms including individual or collective trauma, reluctance to report future incidents to the authorities for fear of retaliation and diminished feelings of pride or acceptance in one's local community. That was very apparent to me from what Deputy Gogarty described as the instance he encountered in his community. It is important to emphasise, however, that the people involved in this type of behaviour are a small minority of people. I accept that their impact can be significant but in general most people in Ireland, and indeed most people under 18 years of age, are respectful and they recognise that Ireland should be, and remains, a safe community. We have a situation in Ireland where it is a pretty peaceful country. People might ask, "Where do you get that statistic from?" I get it from a global index of peacefulness throughout the world. The index that came out for 2025 indicated that Ireland was second in terms of peacefulness after Iceland. Notwithstanding this, I am conscious that this is no comfort to people who are subjected to consistent antisocial behaviour or criminal activity. It is for that reason the Government is very determined to tackle antisocial behaviour. The reason we are not opposing this motion is that very many of the proposals set forward by Deputy Gogarty in his motion are proposals we agree with and which we will seek to implement through the programme for Government. It is important to point out that many things are being done to ensure that we can get on top of this issue of antisocial behaviour and criminal activity by people under 18 years of age or slightly over that age. As mentioned by Deputy Fitzmaurice, the most effective way of ensuring we have safe communities is to have a highly visible Garda presence in our communities. I am pleased to say that recruitment of members into the force is going in the right direction. I was at a passing-out ceremony in Templemore in August where 154 new recruits passed out. When we go up there in November, we are going to get to 200 recruits passing out then. Twice already this year, the intake into Templemore has been around the figure of 200. If I can get 200 as an intake into Templemore four or even five times a year, we will find ourselves getting the numbers up significantly in An Garda Síochána. At present we have 14,250 in the force. I want to see us get to 15,000. If we can get the good recruitment up and we get around 200 coming in from each intake, that will be very significant. I heard what Deputy Collins said about west Cork. In many instances he can blame his colleague behind him, Deputy O'Flynn, because 20 gardaí went to Cork city from the recruits who came out in August.

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I do not get involved in allocating gardaí around the country-----

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-----and it would be inappropriate for a Minister for justice to do so. The Garda Commissioner does take into account what the operational needs are in certain areas, and that is why he decides where the new recruits should be allocated. We will all work together to ensure we can get more gardaí into our communities. It is also important to point out that the 2025 budget provided an unprecedented allocation of over €2.48 billion to An Garda Síochána. This is a 27% increase since 2020. The funding allows for the continued recruitment of gardaí. As I said, at present we have approximately 14,276 gardaí. The Deputy is right that we need to get them out into the community. Part of the way we can achieve that is by recruiting more civilian staff into the force to do the work that can be done by civilians. At present there are 3,675 civilian staff in An Garda Síochána. We have also made changes by increasing the age at which people can be recruited into An Garda Síochána. It used to be the case that a person had to be under 35. Now a person can apply for the job up to the age of 50 and we have extended mandatory retirement to 62. A new Garda recruitment campaign was launched at the Ploughing Championships by the Garda Commissioner and me on Tuesday. I would ask people to consider a career in the force. It is a very worthwhile career. It is a job in the public service and when people join the force, they very much enjoy it. Other things that are being done include the establishment of community safety partnerships and increasing the community safety innovation fund to support that roll-out. People will be aware that under the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act 2024, there will be 36 local community safety partnerships. These will play a central role in ensuring that local communities and the Garda are informed about where resources need to be targeted in order to confront antisocial behaviour. Members here will be aware of the community safety fund. It is a very significant asset. In 2024, over €3 million was allocated to projects nationwide. Themes from the 2024 successful applicants included projects aimed at addressing antisocial behaviour, domestic violence, drug-related intimidation and social inclusion. I believe it was Deputy Fitzmaurice who mentioned that we need youth diversion programmes. One of the things I have noticed since I became the Minister for justice is all the excellent work being done in youth diversion programmes, and there is a lot of excellent work being done by the Probation Service. They probably do not publicise it enough - we do not get to hear about it enough - but a huge number of young people who get involved in the pathway of antisocial behaviour or criminal activity are diverted from it by the youth diversion initiatives. The Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, is beside me here and he plays a very central role in respect of that. A suite of interventions is available within the system, ranging from engagement with the diversion projects to the bail supervision scheme, the young person's probation and community sanctions. The Government has committed to a review of the Children Act. One of the many things mentioned here related to imposing responsibilities on the parents to a greater extent. Section 98 of the Children Act 2001 provides for a whole variety of sanctions that can be imposed by a court on children who are offenders and on the parents of those children as well. I am asking my Department to look at this again to ensure that the courts are aware and do in fact have a range of options available to them. It is important to note that the Department funds 93 youth diversion projects that are community-based multi-agency youth crime prevention initiatives designed to divert young people who have been, or are at risk of becoming, involved in antisocial behaviour. By the end of this year, once we introduce the youth diversion projects in north Tipperary and east Clare, there will be full coverage of youth diversion projects across the country. This will be a significant achievement. I am aware that Members rightly want to focus on the antisocial behaviour and criminal activity of a small group, but there is availability there to resolve it by trying to get those kids into youth diversion programmes. Deputy Fitzmaurice is right about local gardaí, and I think Deputy Collins said this as well, who play a central role. Having been in the job for nearly eight months now, my assessment of An Garda Síochána is that they do have this local knowledge. In places I go around the country, to Garda stations in Ballylinan, Carlow or Gorey, the gardaí have a good local knowledge. Community gardaí are a bit like a very successful local politician; they know their community and do their work on the ground. The youth diversion projects also work with schools and local communities. My Department liaises with the Department of Education and Youth to promote initiatives that encourage pro-social behaviour among our young people. Almost €48 million was allocated under the UBU Your Place Your Space scheme in 2024. Budget 2025 secured an increase of 7%, so the funding is now €50.7 million. Money and resources are being allocated to deal with these children who are involved in antisocial behaviour. I also take into account what Deputy Gogarty said about further legislation. There is a lot of legislation on the book at present to deal with this type of antisocial behaviour, whether it is the Criminal Damage Act 1991, the public order Act 1994, the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 or the theft and fraud Act. There are mechanisms available. If further legislative intervention is required, we will consider it. We do have to recognise, however, that this is a complex issue to respond to. I welcome the fact we are debating it here but we need that broader approach of education, policing and trying to get parents involved to ensure that we do not get young people on the path to criminality. The Minister of State, Deputy Collins, will stay here to deal with any responses.

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