Mr. Seán Egan:

If I could just add in regard to the Swedish example, I was discussing this with Dr. Ciara Kelly on the radio this morning. It has been suggested that the Swedes are looking at reducing it because young people are being groomed to be involved in crime by criminal gangs that are exploiting the fact that they fall below the age of criminal responsibility. To me, that is horrifying as a prospect, but it is wrong to then extend the aperture of punishment to include those young people who are being groomed and exploited. The better thing to do is what the Irish Government is currently exploring, which is to criminalise the grooming behaviour towards children to get them involved in crime. The emphasis must be on punishing the very sinister calculating adults who are at the heart of this, not making our system less fair, failing to abide by our human rights and children's rights obligations and negatively impacting children who, even if they are perpetrating harm, are often the victims of even greater harm themselves.