Boot camp idea has no leg to stand on

Billy Timmins has come up with the latest in a rag-bag of disjointed gimmicks by Fine Gael, argues Willie O'Dea

Billy Timmins has come up with the latest in a rag-bag of disjointed gimmicks by Fine Gael, argues Willie O'Dea

Writing in Monday's Irish Times, Fine Gael's Billy Timmins complained that his Army-run boot camps idea was not being judged on its own merits. In the week since he and Enda Kenny floated their proposal it has come in for much criticism. This, he claims, is just a knee-jerk response. He is wrong. Some have put aside the probability that it is unconstitutional and unlawful under international law, and still judged the idea unworkable on its own merits.

Fine Gael readily acknowledges that what distinguishes this idea is the military involvement. It is not proposing centres to deal with persistent young offenders. What the party suggests is quite specific. It wants the Army to run these centres. It wants the Army training and drilling young offenders.

That's the problem. There lies the flaw. It is not a role for the Army.

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This is not just the view of those qualified in the field of youth offenders - it is also the view of the military itself, both at senior and grassroots level.

Our troops are not trained or equipped for this role. Nor do they want it. Mr Timmins is right to say that our Defence Forces have a well-deserved reputation for training and personal development. This is due to the skill and dedication of the trainers, but it is also due to the high calibre of recruits the Army attracts.

But the skills needed to train and mould a well-educated, highly motivated recruit are not the same as those needed to address the behavioural problems of a young thug. Neither Billy Timmins nor Enda Kenny seem to grasp this.

The problems of juvenile crime and anti-social behaviour will not be resolved by handing the miscreants over to the Army. Turning Army sergeants into surrogate parents is no answer. This is not a lesson we need to learn for ourselves. It is the experience of others who have tried it - and Fine Gael knows that.

In his article on Monday, Mr Timmins quotes extensively from his press statements of last week. Curiously, he left out an important section from his statement of Monday, November 20th, entitled: "International example shows that Defence Forces alternative to benefit the State and young offenders."

On November 20th, Mr Timmins claimed that Thorn Cross in the UK showed "the benefit of intensive regimes run by the army as a substitute for young offenders". By last Monday there was no mention of Thorn Cross. Why not? The reason is simple.

Thorn Cross is not run by the military. There is no army involvement. It is not an example of what Fine Gael suggests we do here. It is staffed and run by specialised probation and welfare professionals, not the military. Thorn Cross could not be further away from Enda Kenny's and Billy Timmins's Defence Forces-run facility.

So where are the international examples of military-run centres? The closest is a UK juvenile detention centre at Colchester that was run by the British military. Though it is precisely what it proposes, Fine Gael makes no reference to it. Presumably because it closed 13 months after it opened amid controversy and failure.

There are sufficient international examples of professionally run and managed centres that work, so why does Fine Gael propose we adopt a model that doesn't work? And why does Fine Gael propose a model that makes no mention of parental responsibility?

This Government has looked abroad and is adopting and implementing what works. It is why we established the Youth Justice Service. It is why we are expanding the range of community sanctions available to the courts.

It is why we have increased the number of Garda Youth Diversion projects.

It is why we are introducing new children's detention measures and it is why we have introduced Asbos for dealing with anti-social behaviour by children and young people.

On Monday Mr Timmins called on others not to exclude new ideas out of ignorance, political dishonesty or a blind refusal to engage in new thinking. It is a reasonable call, but where are Fine Gael's new ideas and new thinking?

Mr Kenny's and Mr Timmins's boot camps notion is a failed old idea from the 1980s and 1990s. But it is not just a one-off aberration; it is but the latest in a sequence that includes a ban on hoodies, late-night drunk-tanks, legalising "small" brothels and placing bins in youth clubs and churches where illegally held guns could be dumped anonymously.

Where is the new thinking that underpins this random assortment of soundbites? The Irish public is entitled to policy platforms based on principle, thought and research, not an internet word search.

Fine Gael has had 4½ years to produce a coherent, costed and structured programme. In its place it is offering a rag-bag of disjointed, badly researched and poorly costed gimmicks.

Tackling crime, particularly juvenile crime, requires a serious commitment to hard work, not this empty posturing on boot camps.

• Willie O'Dea is Minister for Defence