Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 4 November 2025

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration

General Scheme of the Children (Amendment) Bill 2024: Discussion

2:00 am

Mr. Seán Egan:

Anyone who has worked with young children will recognise this pattern of young people from deprived areas where there is a lot of criminality. Often, they will have been given drugs and, in return for those, they will have been expected to sell drugs. There is a situation where young people are being groomed into involvement in the drugs business and that can take the form of selling drugs. It can also take the form of engaging in intimidation or violent crimes to collect drug debts or even acts of arson to-----