John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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234. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of child abduction offences that occurred under section 16 of the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997 in each of the years 2015 to 2018; the number of child abduction offences that occurred under section 17 of the Act in each of the years 2015 to 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20759/19]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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The protection of children is a top priority for my Department, the justice agencies and the whole of Government. Legislation is in place to criminalise child abduction, and An Garda Síochána, in cooperation with social media companies and the public through the Child Rescue Ireland Alert (CRI Alert) system, work to ensure that any child that goes missing is found as quickly as possible.

Incidents of abduction of a child under 16 years of age under sections 16 and 17 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997, are recorded on the Garda PULSE system and are set out in the following respective tables. I should advise that all information provided in this table is based upon operational data from the PULSE system as was available on 12th April 2019, and is liable to change. Crime counting rules, [1] as outlined on the CSO website, have not been applied. For distribution to the public domain, An Garda Síochána does not ordinarily report on details where less than 10 incidents have been recorded.

Divisions not included in the tables have had no incidents recorded over the time period.

Section 16 of the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997: