Only 7 Asbos issued since system started in 2007
More than 5,000 warnings have been issued to adults and children, but only three behaviour orders for children and four civil orders for adults have been handed out so far.
No one has received an antisocial behaviour order since 2009.
The Oireachtas justice committee is set to discuss the Asbo system later this year. Chair of the committee David Stanton said they have been incredibly busy lately, but they will be looking into the issue from September to December.
“It is on our programme to discuss antisocial issues and we are planning to do a major piece of work on it,” he said.
So far this year, 277 adult behaviour warnings and 148 child behaviour warnings have been issued, a similar level to last year.
Mr Stanton claimed the limited use of the antisocial behaviour order may be because it is not necessary to issue them, rather than a lack of interest from gardaí
“Wouldn’t it be marvellous if the gardaí just didn’t have to use them. It is totally up the gardaí to use them how they see fit,” he said.
“We have very professional gardaí and they know what has to be done.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said despite little interest in the system, there have been no complaints. “The department has not received details of any recent criticisms from children’s rights groups on this issue.
“However, it should be noted that these provisions are part of an overall incremental and balanced range of options available to gardaí, including a very significant range of youth justice diversion measures, in formulating appropriate responses to instances of antisocial behaviour.”
In an Oireachtas discussion late last year, Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan said that he found the Asbo system to be effective.
“Generally speaking, we have reasonably good success in terms of compliance. We do not have a huge number of orders,” he said.
“It depends on from which side of the fence one is looking at the problem, but we tend to take the view that the warnings have provided sufficient cover to avoid the necessity of going to court to get a court order.”
