The Probation Service has begun training staff to deal with radicalised criminals engaged in violent extremism.
This includes sending staff to participate in the European Commission’s Radicalisation Awareness Network (Ran), where experts share tactics and best practices in responding to the increasing problem of politically motivated violent extremism across the EU.
In its annual report for 2024, the Probation Service – an agency within the Department of Justice dealing with offenders – said that while cases involving radicalisation are “relatively new and extremely rare” it has taken steps to develop capacity in this area.
One of the most high-profile examples involved the attempted murder of an Army chaplain in August 2024 by a 17-year-old boy.
Last April, the teen was jailed for eight years for the knife attack on Fr Paul Murphy at Renmore Barracks in Galway on August 15th, 2024. The teenager was a supporter of the Islamic State terror group, having become radicalised online.
Mr Justice Paul McDermott ordered the child to undergo a deradicalisation programme under the direction of the Probation Service while issuing a stark warning about the growth in violent extremism among young people.
“In the modern world, vulnerable and highly impressionable and otherwise intelligent teenagers can be the object of dangerous, manipulative, false and malicious propaganda by terrorists or other dangerous elements in society,” the judge said.
He said impressionable children are “relatively easy prey for fanatical propagandists”.
Overall, the Probation Service dealt with a record number of referrals in 2024. It was involved in the supervision of 17,150 people, a 10 per cent increase since 2020.
Much of this was driven by an increase in community service orders being issued by judges instead of prison. More than 222,200 hours of community service were ordered last year, a 6.8 per cent increase on the previous year.
There was also a 10 per cent increased in cases involving child offenders, with 609 being referred to the Probation Service. This is higher than any other year since 2015.
The service detailed the establishment of a project specifically targeting 12- to 24-year-olds engaged in crime in Dublin’s north inner city.
The initiative, know as the Diamond Project, was set up following a number of high-profile, unprovoked attacks in the city, including the assault of US tourist Stephen Termini by a group of teens in July 2023.
“Its mission is to work therapeutically with the young people in question, and their families, to address intergenerational trauma and adverse childhood experiences,” the Probation Service said. Twenty young people took part in the project last year.
The service has also established a Judicial Engagement Plan to promote its work among judges and encourage them “to reserve imprisonment as a last resort”.
This comes amid severe prison overcrowding and an increase in judges sentencing offenders to short prison terms.
[ Prison service embarks on €400m building project to ease overcrowdingOpens in new window ]
Under the plan, the Probation Service is working to ensure judges understand what community-based sanctions it can offer and “replace ad-hoc, regionally inconsistent practices with a structured framework for dialogue, feedback and accountability”.
It also set a joint goal with the Irish Prison Service to “maximise” the use of community-based punishments “as an alternative to custody and as an early release mechanism that promotes public safety”.
Elsewhere, the Probation Service supervised 129 offenders in the community who had been released from life sentences. It also supervised just over 620 sex offenders in the community.
