The Government should consider fining parents of children in order to tackle anti-social behaviour, a Fianna Fáil TD has argued. 

Between 800 and 1,000 children are deemed ‘prolific offenders’, which means they have been repeatedly linked to criminal activity. 

The Government is preparing to boost funding for youth diversion programmes in a bid to distract young people from crime. 

However, Fianna Fáil TD Séamus McGrath has argued that there also needs to be more of an emphasis on “parental responsibility”. 

“Ultimately, parents are responsible for children until they reach adulthood,” he argued on Newstalk Breakfast. 

“Now, we fully understand that this is a complex issue - there are many causes to youth crime, to youth antisocial behaviour and so on.

“I think there are many parents out there trying their best and may have very difficult children with complex needs and are unable to control them - I think those parents need help and they need support.

“But there is the other end of the spectrum, where there are some parents out there willfully enabling their children to carry out crime. 

“In those cases, there has to be sanction on those parents and there has to be penalties.”

The Cork South Central TD noted that in Britain, parents can be required to attend counselling and, if they do not attend the sessions, they are fined. 

“In some cases, parents need help,” he said. 

“They need support from the state and all too often that help isn't there and we have to recognise that.

“So, we're not saying this is about coming down harder on parents, it's about recognising the role of parents and the responsibility of parents. 

“But in other cases, parents need there needs to be sanctions imposed if they're clearly not doing what they should be doing in terms of their responsibility as parents.” 

Consequences to crime

Deputy McGrath added that his constituents “want to see consequences” for antisocial behaviour and feel that far too often that does not happen, adding that he is personally “not opposed to the idea of financial penalties”. 

“There is a law at present under the Children's Act 2001, where there is a provision for a financial penalty imposed on parents,” he said. 

“It isn't used very much, apparently, it's very rarely used. 

“I think we are jumping ahead a little bit in this conversation when we're talking about a specific measure such as financial penalties on parents.

“What we are saying is the parental responsibility aspect of youth crime has to become a far greater part of the discussion and we have to ensure a way that that is brought into the focus.”

Main image: A child at home. Picture by: Alamy.com.