Antisocial Behaviour
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-30
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Fiona O'Loughlin (FF), Administrative Panel

I thank the Minister of State. I acknowledge that the Minister came down to Newbridge at my invitation and met with local business owners, not specifically in relation to this issue but other antisocial behaviour that was happening. As a result of that, we got extra gardaí, which was important. We need to have more. I will say two things: it is good that there generally is a reduction in harmful and aggressive behaviour by young people and this is a tiny percentage. Most of the young people we have are wonderful young people who are great ambassadors for their towns. There is a concern in Newbridge that if there is a group of young boys, people automatically think that they are part of this marauding group. There is a concern for those who are completely innocent of this behaviour. That is part of it.
I welcome the local community safety partnerships. Oireachtas Members are not on it and cannot be members of it. That is a shame because we were members of the preceding partnerships. That was really important. We certainly need to put more into our youth diversion projects and into In Sync, which does a really good job in Newbridge. I visited it relatively recently. We need to support our local authorities in having those drop-in centres for young people where they learn respect, positive behaviour and that this type of behaviour is simply not acceptable.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-30