Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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561.To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of reports made to An Garda Síochána on attempted child abductions and child abductions for the years 2019 to 2023 and to date in 2024, tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25397/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, 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 that criminalises 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.

Child abduction is an offence under sections 16 and 17 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997, which provides for an offence of abduction of a child by a parent (section 16) or by other persons (section 17). A person found guilty of an offence under these sections is liable on summary conviction to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or both and on conviction on indictment to a fine or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding seven years, or to both.

As the Deputy will be aware, the Central Statistics Office (CSO), as the national statistical agency, is responsible for the compilation and publication of all crime statistics.

I am advised by An Garda Síochána that the CSO publish statistics on the offence of ‘Abduction of Persons under 16 years of age’. This information can be found at the following links below:

Annually at National level at .

Quarterly at Regional level at

The CSO produces these statistics using data recorded on An Garda Síochána’s PULSE system and makes regular releases in relation to various crime statistics. The most recent statistics were released on 25 March 2024, providing statistics for Recorded Crime for Quarter 4 (Q4) 2023. However, it is worth noting that crime statistics for Q1 of 2024 are not yet available and are due to be published by the CSO towards the end of June.

I am further advised that there is no category in PULSE that explicitly records the number of attempted child abductions.