At a meeting of restorative justice service managers in June 2023, one agreed action was for Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology to host and facilitate a meeting on the development of restorative justice provision in Ireland with service managers and practitioners.
This took place in Maynooth on 27 November 2023, attended by around thirty persons from Athy Alternative Project, the Cornmarket Project, Le Chéile, Restorative Justice in the Community, Restorative Justice Services, Tuam Community Training Centre (Community-Based Organisations [CBOs] which deliver, or will soon deliver, restorative justice in the criminal justice process) and the Probation Service.
CBOs’ attendees included service managers and restorative justice practitioners. The Probation Service’s attendees included persons in the Restorative Justice and Victim Services Unit (RJSVU) and Probation Officers from counties which have restorative justice CBOs.
At the event, the host, Dr. Ian Marder (Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology), agreed to write a ‘plan on a page’ for this group with clearly defined, collective goals and objectives.
He proposed that these align with the event’s goals: 1) strengthening communication and collaboration between restorative justice providers; 2) contributing towards the increased accessibility of high-quality, safe restorative justice for all persons who might benefit from participation.
The group agreed to seek to achieve this by:
- building relationships and breaking down barriers across the sector;
- facilitating conversations on how services can collaborate to maximise accessibility; and,
- supporting discussions on new policies and the future direction of implementation.
The group also agreed a list of actions by consensus. You can find an outline of these actions here.