Irish Penal Reform Trust

The Irish Times: Young people's criminal records 'should be wiped at 25'

2nd February 2017

An article written by Kitty Holland titled 'Young people's records should be 'wiped at 25'' was published by The Irish Times yesterday.

Kieran Mulvey, former chair of the Workplace Relations Commission. spoke yesterday to residents of the northeast inner-city on his report on what needs to be done to regenerate the area. He stated that the lack of employment opportunities for young people meant that many were attracted to the drugs trade. 

He explained the cycle as people can get "into the culture and into using the product. Your access to employment ends as soon as an employer sees a criminal record on a CV. We have to change that and take crime off the record [committed while] people were aged 18 to 25. We have to believe errors committed in youth can be forgotten and overcome. We have to help people into employment and not condemn them to repeated visits to Mountjoy.”

He believes that the areas which need to be tackled to prevent convictions in the first place are: housing conditions; corporate responsibilities of the business community; policing; education; the physical environment; and the role of Nama in investing in the area.

For more:

The Pat Kenny Show: Interview on Spent Convictions 

Read more about Spent Convictions legislation here.

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