Young people 'being groomed as drug runners for local drug traffickers and gang members'

Cork City projects will also receive money, as will Bandon in Co Cork, where 'a significant amount of Eastern Europeans are residing in Clonakilty, Skibbereen and the adjacent hinterland" and that "a significant number of this population are increasingly coming before the courts'.

Children aged under 10 are being drawn into drug activity, while younger members of the Travelling community are "being led by adults to commit crimes", a new report before the Department of Justice states.

These examples are among the submissions in funding applications for Youth Diversion Projects (YDP), which have welcomed a funding boost of €6.7m to increase work with children who are involved in antisocial and criminal behaviour at an increasingly young age.

The Department of Justice will announce the new funding on Wednesday, with just under €6.7m in funding allocations for over 50 projects around the country, bringing overall funding from €18m to €24m, and comes following submissions from YDPs outlining issues with drug-taking, criminal behaviour and children being groomed by gangs.

The money will be split between key areas of the Youth Justice Strategy — boundary extensions, early intervention, working with harder-to-engage young people, and family support. Another €780,000 is earmarked for new projects.

The successful submissions include some from Tallaght, where under-10s are being drawn into drug activity, and Dublin 11, where "younger members of the Traveller Community being led by adults to commit crimes". 

In Louth, "young people frequently associate with older peer groups and gangs in the neighbourhood. Many of these teenagers are being groomed as drug runners and holders for local drug traffickers and gang members."

Cork City projects will also receive money, as will Bandon in Co Cork, where "a significant amount of Eastern Europeans are residing in Clonakilty, Skibbereen and the adjacent hinterland" and that "a significant number of this population are increasingly coming before the courts".

According to Geraldine Scott, manager of the Swords Youth Service in north Dublin, it will allow the YDP to work with younger children on an early intervention basis — particularly the younger siblings of people who have already come to the attention gardaí.

Ms Scott said of offending patterns: "It is happening younger and younger.

"We have an advisory committee made up of JLOs [Juvenile Liaison Officers], schools and local agencies and it has been raised consistently for the past two, three years. They are generally the younger siblings of existing participants coming to attention of the guards.

"It is an issue — it [offending] can start off with minor things in the community but that can escalate quite quickly, particularly if older siblings have gone into the justice system, it continues on in families."

The YDP in Swords has a large catchment area and works with people aged 12 to 18, but the additional funding has been earmarked for early intervention work and a full-time family support worker, which would allow the YDP to work with children as young as eight and address any early issues with siblings of people already engaged with the service.

Ms Scott said the funding was to be welcomed and was "long overdue".

She also said the pandemic, and particularly the closure of schools during periods of lockdown, had an adverse effect on some young people.

"A lot of young people we work with here really did struggle to get back into education and some of them did leave," she said.

"A lot of young people are reporting with anxiety and social anxiety in particular."

Minister of State with responsibility for Youth Justice, James Browne, said he had seen first-hand the positive impact of YDP work around the country.

"This money will help some projects extend their work into neighbouring communities, it will help some projects to devote specific resources to harder-to-engage children and it will help some projects to appoint new or additional family support workers," he said.

The minister said the additional money would help achieve the target of having YDP services available to every child in the State who would benefit from it within the next two years.