I want to talk about something that is ongoing. It is not specific to today but it has been happening every single day and every single year since this State began, and anecdotally, it appears to be getting worse. I am talking about antisocial behaviour and, in particular, antisocial behaviour by those aged under 18. Young people are invariably good. We had a discussion a while back about the fact that only 2% of young people ever come before An Garda Síochána. However, a lot of our young people are now under threat from random violent assaults by gangs of 12- and 13-year-olds going around. I had parents come to me after a lad got a punch and his eye socket was damaged. It was just a random attack. Equally, I know of parents walking around in a park with a buggy when a gang of four youths came over, threw bricks and sticks at them and verbally abused them. If they happen to be from another country originally, racist tropes are thrown in as well, but it is abuse given to anyone. A gang of lads went into one of my local cafés, stole bottles, walked out brazenly and then came back in and threw the contents of the bottles at staff. This is happening every day. I am not talking about the stuff that requires four mountain bike gardaí from Operation Irene in an estate in my constituency, where fires are lit regularly, drug dealing takes place every day and somebody got attacked with a machete recently. That is high-level stuff that needs to be dealt with, true enough, but the lower level stuff is what puts people in peril walking around. Many times it is young people who are randomly attacked. I want to talk about consequences. There were 15,813 referrals of 12- to 17-year-olds to the Garda youth diversion programme in 2023 and 15,790 in 2022, representing 10,000 and 8,400 offenders, respectively. They are the ones who reach the threshold to get an antisocial behaviour warning or an antisocial behaviour order, ASBO, and to be put onto a Garda programme.
Sentiment score: -0.28
There were 15,813 referrals of 12- to 17-year-olds to the Garda youth diversion programme in 2023. They are the ones who end up getting into the system but I am more concerned about the ones, the hangers-on of the ring leaders, who should not get into the system in the first place. Are there any further plans for consequences? I raised the issue some months ago with the Tánaiste, Deputy Harris, of the need to put in place some sort of ban or restriction on social media for 11- to 13-year-olds because of the Andrew Tate-ificiation of young males in particular, who have no real role models in a more feminised primary school system. I have mentioned nitrous oxide canisters previously and the Taoiseach said he would look into action on that. What plans does the Government have to have consequences for actions? We know there are root causes and I have raised those root causes previously but if someone does something, where are the consequences?
Sentiment score: -0.11
As the Taoiseach said, the schools are doing a great job. It is mainly female teachers in primary schools, and they are the ones who are getting misogynistic abuse at sixth-class level. We have had different debates about that. The Taoiseach mentioned the community safety partnerships. I wish they would hurry up and get them set up because there is a deficit there, including in communities that are not designated as disadvantaged but have areas of disadvantage within them. They need to be widespread to cover that area. I am a big believer in early years education because, as the HighScope Perry Preschool Project proves, every €1 invested gives a €17 return. We need to tackle the causes but, equally, the parents of a child who has been attacked or a pregnant lady, for example, who has been attacked will want to know what the consequences are. Sometimes these guys are parading themselves on social media and there could be 11 or 12 incidents before anything happens. There needs to be tougher, on-the-spot type of stuff, whether it is curfews, seizing scooters, seizing PlayStations or fining their parents. We need to add that into the mix so that they know there are first-hand repercussions rather than waiting a year to get through the system.
Sentiment score: -0.06