Paul Nicholas Gogarty: We are lax on crime, Dáil warning

Comhairle, Taoiseach, it's my firm belief now that we are lax on crime and lax on the causes of crime. A year ago this month, before the recess, I raised the issue of my constituents being attacked willy-nilly by persons under 18 with no apparent consequences. I'm talking about lads going around on the scooters, intimidating people, bottles been thrown, stones been thrown, young lads and girls been beaten up. I raised it again in my private members' business in September. Although we had a good debate and the government didn't oppose the debate, we haven't seen any meaningful actions or consequences. And it's happening again, I've had reports again of teenagers and young children getting beaten up, left bloodied by random attacks from teenagers. And obviously we have to take a two-pronged approach. We don't want to criminalise young adults and bring them into that system. And I know that where the Juvenile Liaison has been funded, it's been shown to work. But there are no short, sharp shock consequences to deter people from doing it. As I mentioned last year Taoiseach, people could have 13 or 14 offences before they're eventually caught up with. And the interaction of the parents isn't being looked at. Even if you look at the issue of the quad bikes and the scooters, confiscation is the number one option at the moment. And then the threat perhaps of a JLO caution and maybe TUSLA being involved with the family. That doesn't scare any parents who's bought these items for their kids. Remember it's parents buying the scooters and the quad bikes, not the kids going out and getting them. But I'm talking about the wider issue of kids who don't have adequate parental oversight, who are going out and attacking people. There is no law of reasonable defence in this country. If you're retreating, you might be able to stop someone. But if someone's thrown stones at you, and I've had a couple of constituents report this to me before, three or four people thrown stones at them, including at a mother with a buggy and a man with her. What is that man supposed to do? Or two women in any case. How are they supposed to defend themselves in a situation like that? They can't go trying to stop the people throwing the stones, because it has to be, I think, a criminal offence worthy of five years imprisonment before you can actually get away with that defence argument. So we do need some more tools to help people defend themselves when they're being attacked. But equally, to go back to what I said last year Taoiseach, we need meaningful consequences. If you do X, Y and Z, it's dealt with locally. These are the consequences, both for the children in terms of curfews, in terms of withdrawal of certain privileges, and for the parents in terms of fines. That's what we need, because right now the system isn't working. It remains as broken as it did last year. Taoiseach, please. I thank the First Deputy for raising this issue. The government is not lax on crime, and the government has allocated very significant additional resources this year, last year, and will continue to do so in terms of fundamentally recruiting more Gardaí, which I think is important. We have, in 2026, funded the recruitment of a further 1,000 new Gardaí and 200 more Garda staff and additional Garda reserve this year. So at the end of April, the overall Garda workforce was over 18,000. Particularly in the Dublin metropolitan region, you're looking at close to 4,000 Gardaí assigned on the same day. We've equipped the Gardaí in terms of three divisions now, also the site of proof of concept for body-worn cameras, trial of deployment of conductive energy devices to train front-line Gardaí. So we're continuing to work on the resourcing of a Gardaí economy. Also, we now have youth diversion programmes in every part of the country. Children must engage with youth diversion programmes or else they will be dealt with through the criminal justice system. I think we need a wider societal approach to this. Young people drawing stones at a woman in a buggy is just shocking, appalling behaviour. And I think parents, I think families, communities and societies have to take responsibility here as well. There are a lot of positive things happening in our society as well. Many, many volunteers doing extraordinary work with young people in sporting clubs, in a variety of other social clubs, youth clubs, cultural organisations. All of that must equally be affirmed and acknowledged and we resource that and we support that as well. It is our view that greater visibility of Gardaí on the street will deter actions of the kind that you have outlined. And that where extra Gardaí have been deployed, that has been the experience. Also, Gardaí are reporting significant progress in respect of certain crimes and certain criminal activity, which also needs to be acknowledged. But I do believe that in certain communities we need something on the model, which Minister Caleri has now developed in respect of the Department of Community Rural Development, Minister Butterworth, the whole idea of having particular coordinated resources in certain communities to give a broad-based approach, somewhat like the Rapid Programme of a previous era, which can deal on multiple fronts with this phenomenon that you have described. Chuck, I have given credit where credit is due before in terms of government initiatives and the body-worn cameras is one positive response. But even with the addition of Gardaí, the numbers per head of population are still at 2008 levels. People want an Operation Irene all year round, where they do have that visible Garda deterrence, but they are not actually seeing it. And the juvenile resources do work. There are so many projects around the country that are doing fantastic work. But you are trying to stop kids getting to that stage in the first place, because, as I said, 13 or 14 offences before they are brought into the system is too many. There has to be some form of, and I take your point in the societal approach, there has to be something that will deter and get the parents involved. And whether if they are working, it is deducting tax, whether if they are on social welfare, it is deducting social welfare. Anything that is going to hit people and make them think twice about the way their kids are behaving. There is obviously deprivation-related issues as well, and parents need support. So you have to take a holistic approach. But as a society, as I said, we are not dealing with it. Taoiseach, please. I take your point in respect of multiple offences, and we will discuss that further, and your issue of monetary penalties in respect of people's incomes. There has been a general reluctance on that front, because you could create unintended consequences for others in a family, and for other children in a family who are not breaking the law. But I do take your point more generally, that there has to be consequences for crime, and particularly where young people are committing multiple offences. And that is something that I know the Minister for Justice, along with other Ministers, will certainly continue to work on.