36. Deputy Paula Butterly asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the number of prosecutions under the Criminal Justice (Engagement of Children in Criminal Activity) Act 2024 since its commencement in May 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49370/26]

Tackling the criminal grooming of children requires a combined approach of early community intervention, targeted youth services, and robust legislation.

The Government’s Youth Justice Strategy 2021-2027 creates a whole of Government framework to address the challenges around children and young adult’s involvement in the Criminal Justice System. It assesses how we can stop young people from becoming recurring adult offenders.

Among the key actions within the Strategy is targeting harder-to-reach groups, including those subject to grooming and coercive control by criminals.

The Greentown Programme 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 – 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.

Support is provided from An Garda Síochána and expert youth justice services specialising in family support and engaging with hard-to-reach young people. Individuals who are considered Harder-to-Reach are engaged in prolific serious offending and may also be engaging in network-related criminal activity.

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. Learnings from this Programme are being disseminated across the Youth Diversion Project network.

In addition 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.

• 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 14 proceedings (charge/summons) have been initiated since the commencement of the Act on 24 May 2024.