by Alan Jacques
RATHKEALE has been announced as one of ten new locations to benefit from the extension of the Garda Youth Diversion Project.
Minister for Justice and Equality, Frances Fitzgerald announced that €2.8 million is to be allocated from the Dormant Accounts Disbursement Scheme to expand Garda Youth Diversion Services in communities across the country.
Fine Gael TD for Limerick, Dan Neville, believes this is good news for crime prevention locally.
In addition to the new project in Rathkeale, existing projects in Limerick City are to receive funding to support the recruitment of additional staff. These projects are Roxboro, run by Extern, and Henry Street, run by Limerick Youth Service.
“It is great that Limerick is benefiting from both the new Rathkeale project and the strengthening of two city centre projects already doing great work. These projects are designed to prevent and tackle crime, particularly youth crime,” said Deputy Neville.
“It is so important that we deal with criminal behaviour where it presents in the younger generations, thereby breaking the cycle of crime that presents a threat to our community in the future.”
Deputy Neville believes the extension of the Garda Youth Diversion Project will help to further the trend of falling youth crime levels.
“The funding is targeted towards areas of social and economic disadvantage and the projects involve the Gardaí working proactively with children and young people to deter them from committing crime. The old adage that prevention is better than cure rings true here. These projects help children develop their sense of community and their social skills through education, employment training, sport, art, music and other activities. As well as protecting people from crime, we want to give our young people every best chance to flourish in life, participating fully in their communities and living free from criminal behaviour,” he concluded.
