A new report from the Probation Service has highlighted an increase in the number of children and teenagers that the service is working with.
According to the annual report, there were 609 referrals to the Probation Service last year for children aged 12 to 17, an increase of 10% on the previous year.
The report said that this figure is the highest since 2015.
The Probation Service assesses and manages offenders in the community, aiming to support rehabilitation and reduce offending.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme, the service’s deputy director Fíona Ní Chinnéide said that while young people have the highest rates of reoffending, they also have “the highest capacity for positive change”.
“It’s really important that we’re focusing on the interventions and the entrenched agency work to divert them away from crime to ensure to plug them into schools, communities, networks.
“How we do this is working with interagency projects such as Youth Joint Agency response to crime, investment in projects in the northeast inner city such as the Diamond Project, but always focused on turning them around,” she said.
The report said that last year the Probation Service dealt with 17,150 people in the community, the highest level on record.
The Probation Service also managed 1,723 Community Service Orders in 2024, up from 1,614 the previous year.
The report said that the number of such orders last year resulted in 222,245 hours of community service nationwide, the equivalent of 856 years in prison.
The Probation Service also said that it is training staff to deal with radicalised criminals engaged in violent extremism.
However, Ms Ní Chinnéide said that makes up “a very, very small part of our work”.
“But it shows our evidence informed futured-focus direction, that we’re working as part of the inter-agency work that we undertake.”
Ms Ní Chinnéide said the service works with people who have post-release supervision orders as part of their sentences.
“The majority of people coming out to us are part-suspended sentences supervision orders,” she said.
“Among those cohorts are people who have been imprisoned for reasons relating to radicalisation, but again I can’t emphasise it’s such a small part of our work.
“The important piece is working cross-agency with An Garda Síochána, with the Irish Prison Service, developing very important information sharing and just getting ahead of it, but it is a tiny part of our work,” she said.
