43. Deputy Tom Brabazon asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the position regarding the Criminal Justice (Engagement of Children in Criminal Activity) Act 2024; and the number of prosecutions pursuant to this Act since its passage. [20112/26]

Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: The Criminal Justice (Engagement of Children in Criminal Activity) Act 2024, which was commenced in May 2024, makes it an offence for an adult to:

• Compel, coerce, direct or deceive a child for the purpose of engaging in criminal activity.

• Induce, invite, aid, abet, counsel or procure a child to engage in criminal activity.

Those found guilty of these offences may face imprisonment of up to 12 months on summary conviction and up to five years on indictment.

I am advised by the Garda authorities that 17 proceedings (charge/summons) have been initiated since the introduction of the Criminal Justice (Engagement of Children in Criminal Activity) Act 2024 each citing an offence of: Compel, Coerce, Direct or Deceive a child to cause them to engage in criminal activity.

This legislation recognises the life-long impact and harm done to a child by drawing them into criminal activity, and is one of a set of holistic measures being progressed by my Department under the Youth Justice Strategy 2021-2027.

The Government’s focus on youth diversion and interventions is a keystone in the Youth Justice Strategy 2021-2027. The strategy emphasises early intervention, prevention, family support and community engagement. It is aimed at promoting positive behavioural change and targeting this behaviour so that we can break the cycle of offending by young people.

The Greentown Programme, established in 2020, 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.

The Greentown Programme is made up of four strands – 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.