Teenagers involved in serious crime in Tipperary – like drug debt intimidation – will face serious consequences.
That’s according to the Junior Minister for Justice, Catherine Ardagh, who was in Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir yesterday to visit youth diversion projects where teenagers who get in trouble with the Gardai are helped to avoid future criminal and anti-social behaviour.
The Premier County had the highest number of incidents of drug debt intimidation reported last year outside Dublin and Cork.
Minister Ardagh promised that anyone involved in this type of serious crime will be punished no matter what age they are. She added that the government want to expand the capacity of the Children’s Detention Centre in Oberstown so that more serious offenders can be jailed if needs be:
“Obviously, throwing a petrol bomb in someone’s house is a very serious offence and if you’re found guilty of such an offence, I believe, you know, that warrants a detention in a detention facility like Oberstown. So we need to look at capacity issues, we need to ensure that we have capacity for people who commit very serious offences like that, you know, to ensure that there are places in Oberstown and we are working with Minister Foley in relation to capacity issues at Oberstown.”
