Agency urged to target young offenders

IRELAND needs a single agency to target juvenile criminals and children who are at risk of getting into trouble with the law, the head of the National Crime Council has said.

Padraic White said many children who drop out of school fall into “administrative black holes” and are not picked up by any state body.

“There is no agency looking at the big picture and at the scale and location of the children ‘at risk’ and assessing the adequacy of the initiatives in relation to the numbers involved.

“There should be some agency or office in officialdom evaluating the adequacy of the services and the gaps as the child ‘at risk’ moves along the path from education to trouble with the law.”

Writing in a report published yesterday, he said children who are at risk of doing badly at school and causing problems could be identified at a very early age.

Because the reasons behind this are “multiple, complex and interrelated”, he said any state response must also be.

Mr White, who is also chairman of the Northside Partnership in Dublin, highlighted one educational initiative in six disadvantaged schools in Dublin 17 as a model.

The Early School Leaving Project, which brings together teachers, parents, gardaí, health board workers and others, identified 100 children at risk at dropping out.

The project succeeded in getting all children to transfer from primary school to secondary school and increased school attendance.

In his contribution to Youth Justice - Human Rights/Needs, produced by the Irish Association for the Study of Delinquency (IASD), Mr White also called for:

* more resources to the put into Garda Juvenile Liaison Scheme and special diversionary projects for youngsters.

* an end to the current age limit of 15 for Youthreach centres in order to allow younger school drop outs to get in.

* better use of the Probation Service, which is largely being used after offending behaviour has become the norm.

IASD chairman Martin Tansey said the State had failed in its responsibility to young people.

He commended legislation such as the Education Welfare Act, the Children Act and the Youth Work Act, but said the resources had not been put in place to implement them.

He also questioned the need to lock up so many young people, particularly when preventative measures and community-based sanctions were more effective and less expensive.

Law expert Ursula Kelly from University College Cork said that the Government’s failure to implement all of the Children Act will be criticised by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.