A child charged with an offence in Ireland: the Garda Youth Diversion Programme comes first

If a garda has told you that your child is being investigated for an offence, the first thing to know is the order the law sets. Under the Children Act 2001 a child under 18 who admits an offence is considered for the Garda Youth Diversion Programme before any decision to prosecute. Most children who come to Garda attention are dealt with under the Programme and never see a courtroom. This guide explains how it works, what admission and consent mean, what a caution and supervision involve, when a child is prosecuted instead, legal aid, and the rule that keeps a child's identity private throughout.

The age of criminal responsibility

A child under 12 cannot be charged with an offence. The Act sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, with an exception at 10 and 11 for the most serious offences, such as murder, manslaughter and rape. A child under 14 cannot be charged without the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions (the DPP, see the glossary).

Where a child under 12 does something that would be an offence, the Garda cannot prosecute or caution under the Programme. The Garda's route is to bring the child home or to a parent, and in some cases to refer the family to Tusla, the Child and Family Agency.

The Programme comes first

The Programme is in the Children Act 2001 and is run by the Garda Youth Diversion Bureau through juvenile liaison officers in every Garda division. Its purpose, in the words of the Act, is to divert a child who has committed an offence from committing further offences. The Act makes it the first consideration: where a child is believed to have committed an offence, and the child accepts responsibility, the case must be referred to the Director of the Programme before a prosecution can be brought, unless the offence is one the Director has excluded.

In practice this means the investigating garda, after speaking to the child and the parent, sends a referral to the Bureau. A juvenile liaison officer, usually local, is assigned. The officer meets the child and the family, assesses the circumstances, and recommends to the Director whether the child should be admitted, and on what terms. The juvenile liaison officer: a parent's guide describes that meeting.

Admission and consent

Two things are required of the child. The child must accept responsibility for the behaviour. This is not a formal plea and is not an admission that can be used in court; it is the child acknowledging what happened so that the Programme can work with it. And the child must consent to be cautioned and, where supervision is recommended, to be supervised. The parent or guardian is involved in both.

A child who denies the offence cannot be admitted, and should not be pressed into an admission to get the Programme. If the child did not do it, the lawful route is a prosecution and a hearing in the Children Court, where the child pleads not guilty and the Garda have to prove the charge. A solicitor can advise before anything is said, and the Garda Station Legal Advice Revised Scheme pays for that advice where the family is on a social welfare payment or gross earnings are under €20,316 a year; see A child arrested: rights at the Garda station.

The decision

The Director of the Programme, a senior garda in the Bureau, decides whether a child is admitted. The Act requires the Director to consider the nature of the offence, the child's previous behaviour, the views of any victim and the child's and family's circumstances. Admission is not confined to first offences, and it is not confined to trivial ones; the Director can admit a child for a serious offence where diversion is judged to be in the child's and the public interest, and can refuse a child for a minor one where the child has been through the Programme repeatedly without change.

The decision takes weeks rather than days, because the officer's assessment comes first. You are told the outcome by the juvenile liaison officer.

The caution

Admission to the Programme means a caution. The Act provides two kinds.

An informal caution is given by the juvenile liaison officer, usually at the child's home or the Garda station, with a parent or guardian present. It is used for less serious behaviour and is not usually followed by supervision.

A formal caution is given at a Garda station by a Garda superintendent or by the juvenile liaison officer, with the parent or guardian present. The Act allows the victim to be invited to attend a formal caution, so that the child hears the effect of the behaviour, and in some cases the Programme uses a restorative caution or a family conference, where the child, the family and the victim agree what the child should do to make amends. A formal caution is usually followed by supervision.

Neither caution is a conviction. Neither involves a court.

Supervision

Where the Director directs it, the child is supervised by the juvenile liaison officer for a period after a formal caution. The Act sets the period, and in practice the officer tells you at the caution how long it is; the common period is 12 months, and the Director can shorten or extend it depending on how the child gets on. Supervision means the officer keeps in contact with the child and the family, visits, and helps the child engage with school, training, sport or a local Garda Youth Diversion Project, which is a community-run project funded by the Department of Justice and separate from the statutory Programme.

The level of supervision depends on what the officer judges the child needs. It is not a punishment and it is not a curfew, though the officer can agree conditions with the child and the family. If the child commits a further offence during supervision, the Director reconsiders.

When a child is prosecuted instead

A child is prosecuted where the Director decides the Programme is not suitable, where the child does not accept responsibility, or where the offence is one the Director has excluded. The case then goes to the Children Court: the District Court sitting in private for under-18s, with a parent or guardian required to attend, the child's identity protected and detention a last resort. The Children Court explains what happens there. Even then, the Act lets the Children Court itself consider whether the child should be referred back to the Programme, and the Director's decision is not the end of diversion.

A child aged 17 who turns 18 during the process is still dealt with as a child for the offence committed under 18, in the Programme and in the Children Court.

Legal aid for a child

If the case goes to court, criminal legal aid under the Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Act 1962 is granted by the judge where means are insufficient and the charge is serious enough, and for a child the parents' means count. The application is made at the first appearance with a statement of means; ask for it before anything else is dealt with. There is no contribution. The 2026 dispute over the flat €520 fee, in which criminal legal aid solicitors withdrew their services for much of the year, affected Children Court lists like every other; if a solicitor has withdrawn, attend every date, tell the judge and ask for an adjournment. The position is tracked on /changes and explained at /legal-aid.

At the Garda station, before any decision to charge, the Garda Station Legal Advice Revised Scheme applies to a child in the same way as to an adult.

Anonymity

Section 93 of the Children Act 2001 prohibits publishing or broadcasting anything that identifies a child in Children Court proceedings: name, address, school or any other particular, or a photograph. The same protection in substance applies to the Programme, whose proceedings are confidential and whose records the Act restricts. This site follows that rule: nothing on these pages describes any child's case, and nothing you tell the Garda or the court about your child should appear anywhere public.

Where this leaves you

For most families the Programme is the whole of the process: a referral, a meeting with the juvenile liaison officer, a caution with you present, and a period of contact afterwards, with no court and no conviction. A prosecution follows only where the child does not accept responsibility, the Director decides against diversion, or the offence is excluded.

Read the Garda's own description of the Programme at the Garda Youth Diversion Bureau and, if the case does go to court, /legal-aid explains how the judge decides and what the statement of means asks, and /find-a-court gives the court office for the venue the summons names. If you may qualify for legal aid for your child, ask the judge for it at the first appearance.