{"id":13296,"date":"2025-08-05T12:14:57","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T11:14:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/increase-in-teenage-referrals-to-probation-service-a-consequence-of-government-inaction-2\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T12:14:57","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T11:14:57","slug":"increase-in-teenage-referrals-to-probation-service-a-consequence-of-government-inaction-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/increase-in-teenage-referrals-to-probation-service-a-consequence-of-government-inaction-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Increase in teenage referrals to Probation Service a consequence of Government inaction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>My experience as a youth worker tells me that young people engaged in criminal behaviour often don\u2019t choose it<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Social Democrats children\u2019s spokesperson Aidan Farrelly has strongly criticised the government following the publication of a Probation Service report that confirms there has been a 10 percent increase in child referrals to the service.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Farrelly said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA 10 percent increase in the number of children being referred to the Probation Service is alarming, but it is very important to highlight the actual number of referrals is in the hundreds \u2013 609.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven there are approximately 450,000 people aged between 12-17 living in Ireland, this represents a tiny fraction of the number of teenagers in the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuccessive governments have failed to acknowledge that their policies have exacerbated structural inequalities facing communities. In many instances, this contributes to youth crime increasing in areas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Government cannot afford to bury its head in the sand when it comes to the young people of Ireland. Whether it\u2019s endemic poverty levels, a rise in gang-related incidents, drug debt, employment equality \u2013 it is time for this government to take the problems facing young people seriously.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAny cost benefit analysis would tell this government that investing in communities, youth services, and Garda youth diversion programmes would provide an important dividend to the State by way of increased civic engagement, a sense of belonging and opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Deputy Director of the Probation Service, F\u00edona N\u00ed Chinn\u00e9ide, has acknowledged that young people show the greatest potential for positive change, and I fully agree.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy experience as a youth worker tells me that young people engaged in criminal behaviour often don\u2019t choose it. It is imperative that this government invests in young people and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My experience as a youth worker tells me that young people engaged in criminal behaviour often don\u2019t choose it Social Democrats children\u2019s spokesperson Aidan Farrelly has strongly criticised the government following the publication of a Probation Service report that confirms there has been a 10 percent increase in child referrals to the service. Deputy Farrelly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,540,7,648],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aidan-farrelly","category-children","category-press-release","category-youth"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Increase in teenage referrals to Probation Service a consequence of Government inaction - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/increase-in-teenage-referrals-to-probation-service-a-consequence-of-government-inaction-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Increase in teenage referrals to Probation Service a consequence of Government inaction - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My experience as a youth worker tells me that young people engaged in criminal behaviour often don\u2019t choose it Social Democrats children\u2019s spokesperson Aidan Farrelly has strongly criticised the government following the publication of a Probation Service report that confirms there has been a 10 percent increase in child referrals to the service. 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