Failure to prosecute serious young offenders does not represent a missed opportunity to change their lives because there are “little to no interventions” available anyway, a leading youth worker has said.

It is reasonable to assume that many — quite rightly — will welcome the idea floated by Fine Gael senator Joe O’Reilly, who thinks that school-leavers applying for undergraduate courses should have the opportunity to get up to 80 Central Applications Office points for what he calls civic activities, such as practical involvement with community, sporting, and cultural organisations.

Juvenile offenders were responsible for almost half of all sexual offences recorded by gardaí in 2016.

A juvenile boy has been arrested after €420,000 worth of heroin was seized in Ballymun in Dublin.