Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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20. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality his views on the prevalence of childhood exploitation into crime; and his plans to address this issue. [49884/26]

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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It is appropriate that we move on from discussing the successes of CAB and the evolution of how we target the drugs gangs. That has consequences in terms of how the gangs have tried to innovate. One callous activity they have engaged in is the coercion of children into crime. I do not believe eight- and nine-year-olds were being used as drug smugglers 30 years ago. Today, the prevalence of that is substantial. I want to talk about the coercion of children into crime.

Catherine Ardagh (Dublin South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy, the Minister and I all represent inner-city Dublin constituencies and we know very well the devastation the grooming of children into criminality has on all our communities. I have delegated responsibility for youth justice, and it has been a priority of mine since before my appointment to the Department of justice. I am very glad to take this question today.

The Government’s Youth Justice Strategy 2021-2027 creates a whole-of-government framework to address the challenges around children and young adults' involvement in the criminal justice system. It assesses how we can stop young people from becoming recurring adult offenders, as the Deputy described. Among the key actions within the strategy is targeting harder to reach groups, including those subject to grooming and coercive control by criminals.

An interesting programme the Deputy may be aware of is the Greentown programme, which aims to disrupt the grooming of children into network-related criminal activity by adults and provides children with meaningful and practical routes out of these networks. It is made up of four strands, namely, an intensive family programme to help with parenting and general family functioning; providing young people with pro-social opportunities; supporting communities to withstand gang and network influences; and targeting groomers and disrupting their networks. The first Greentown programme progress report from 2023 found that there have been notable improvements in reducing the influence of criminal networks in the trial site communities, including that children and families are better enabled to withstand the powerful attraction of network membership and to make pro-social choices. I am hoping the Greentown project will be rolled out across our communities in the future. Support is provided from An Garda Síochána and expert youth justice services specialising in family support and engaging with hard-to-reach young people.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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I can hear the Minister of State's passion for this area. The problem is that in 2017 or 2018 the Greentown project, in its first national survey, found that at any one time over 1,000 children in the State were being coerced into crime. Between 2018 and 2026, every metric has got worse. I have to assume the coercion of children into crime has got worse. The Greentown project has good outcomes but it is very small and geographically based. I would like to see a national programme that is funded, seeks to prioritise prevention and recognises that the factors that make a child vulnerable to be coerced into crime are often the conditions in which they are born, with poverty foremost among them.

Even today we are talking about young people on scramblers, which is very dangerous and we need to cut it out, but a lot of those young people have been coerced into using those scramblers to sell drugs. Only 17 charges have been made so far under Fagin's law. What are we going to do to improve how we go after people who are targeting children?

Catherine Ardagh (Dublin South Central, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy knows, we are coming up to the end of our youth justice strategy and we will have a new strategy as of the end of 2027. The Greentown project has been extended. The extension of the programme has reduced the influence of criminal networks on children at risk of involvement in crime and improved the likelihood of pro-social outcomes for children who are already involved in criminal networks. We know that investment in these programmes does work, albeit in pilot and smaller models. I agree with the Deputy that this will have to be rolled out across the country, especially across large urban areas. We know, because we represent those areas, that that is where we have the problem.

The Criminal Justice (Engagement of Children in Criminal Activity) Act 2024 makes it an offence for an adult to compel, coerce, direct or deceive a child for the purpose of engaging in criminal activity or induce, invite, aid, abet, counsel or procure a child to engage in criminal activity.

On CAB and-----

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Thank you, Minister of State.

Catherine Ardagh (Dublin South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Sorry.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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The Minister of State will be back in. Deputy Gannon, finally.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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The Criminal Justice (Engagement of Children in Criminal Activity) Act 2024 was welcome but there are flaws in the legislation in that it has the expectation built in that a child would be the witness to their own coercion. Too often we do not see children and young people who are being coerced into this as victims even by the very fact that we talked about the recurring offences. We separate ourselves from the fact that these children are literally being coerced into crime. Sometimes we assume it is through money or financial gain but it is often through the threat of violence to them or their parents.

This is a national problem. It extends beyond urban areas into more rural parts. Much of the anecdotal evidence we have on the level of drug-related intimidation in the State involves children being used to carry out the violence. It is at a level where it has to be an extensive national priority to prevent this, to convict those who do it and to stop a network of young people being dragged into this through violence and coercion.

Catherine Ardagh (Dublin South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I agree with the Deputy. Words like "multidisciplinary" and "multidepartmental" are often used very flippantly but education has a piece, as do criminal justice and the HSE. We, as legislators, have a piece. Supporting our local community is a part of the puzzle. We all must play our part in it.

On what we can do from a community point of view, I have been to many of the projects in Ballyfermot like skate parks. The Deputy will be aware of the community safety fund, an annual grant fund that supports short- to medium-term projects which allow for the proceeds of crime to be directed back into communities. We have seen some really successful projects around the country where we use ill-gotten gains to fund innovative local projects aimed at building stronger, safer communities. I know Deputies from across the House welcome this. Since the fund launched in 2022, it has supported 127 community safety projects nationally. Over successive years the community safety fund has expanded in both reach and impact, supporting projects addressing youth engagement, domestic and gender-based violence, restorative justice, substance misuse and antisocial behaviour.