Mr. Justin Kelly:

I thank the Deputy and reassure him that this is one of the top items on our agenda. The way organised crime groups work, as he well knows, is that they go down the chain and look for people to exploit others. They do all the things the Deputy referred to, such as giving gifts and issuing threats. It is also connected to drugs-related intimidation.

The key for us, as several Deputies have mentioned today, are the community gardaí.

They are the ones who are picking up on this for us, along with our network of juvenile liaison officers. I completely agree with the Deputy that this is not a matter for the courts. We are trying to intervene wherever we can and identify children who are in those situations. We then refer them to our partner agencies such as Tusla. That multi-agency approach is needed for children.

As I said, I assure the Deputy that I am absolutely in agreement with him. It is terrible what people will do around the exploitation of children. There is also sexual exploitation and we see all the work we have done around that as well. That is why, and the Commissioner spoke earlier about this, our network of community gardaí is so important to us.