Call to fine parents for anti-social children

THE parents of out-of-control teenagers should be forced to pay on-the-spot fines, Fine Gael claimed last night.

The party said the fines, which would range between €50 and €100, would be part of a series of measures to tackle anti-social behaviour.

Justice spokesman Jim O’Keefe said it would make parents accept responsibility for their children’s behaviour.

“I was told that last St Patrick’s Day the gardaí had to ring the parents of 150 teenagers who were drunk out of their mind and had to be brought home for their own protection. My approach will be that the next time they have to do that, they’ll tell the parents to bring in €100 as well.”

He added that, if parents could not afford to pay the fines immediately, they could do so in instalments, and, if they refused, it would be deducted from wage packets or social welfare payments instead.

People over 18 would be handed the on-the-spot fines directly.

Fine Gael is proposing 30 measures as part of its anti-social behaviour campaign, including a ban on the selling of spray paints to under-18s, a ban on the sale of alcopops in off-licences and a doubling of the fines for supplying alcohol to underage drinkers - from €1,500 to €3,000.

It is also in favour of giving the courts the power to impose curfew orders on people convicted of anti-social behaviour and to ban groups of people from congregating in areas such as park corners and under bridges.

There will be a new website, safestreets.ie, and a national billboard campaign with photographs of burnt-out cars, drunken street fights and underage drinking.

There will be a national series of meetings to debate the proposals.

“My sympathy is with local communities have put up with this situation for far too long. Desperate situations call for desperate measures,” said Mr O’Keefe. However, he emphasised that the ‘get tough’ campaign also contained proposals to prevent anti-social behaviour.

The drugs courts, which allow addicts to get treatment rather than jail sentences, would be rolled out nationwide and community-garda forums would beset up in towns and cities.

Local authorities would have the power to issue repair notices to owners of derelict buildings and there would be an anti-social fund to pay for community clean-ups.

Mr O’Keefe said that, if Fine Gael got into government, the party would appoint a dedicated Minister of State to deal with anti-social behaviour.

“Fine Gael refuses to ignore or accept anti-social behaviour in our neighbourhoods. It infringes on people’s lives, damages families, and destroys communities.”