'Criminal gangs recruit kids — and try to use their parents' homes to distribute drugs'

Dwyane Horace, senior project worker, the Diamond Project, told the Oireachtas committee on drugs use that some young people who think they have 'great status on the street' are themselves drug users being exploited by a criminal gang. Picture: Oireachtas.ie

Criminal gangs are looking to take over houses to “bag up” drugs if owners go out shopping for a couple of hours, a Dublin youth project has said.

The Diamond Project told an Oireachtas committee that children as young as 12 are being groomed into drug networks, and fear that children as young as nine could be targeted by these gangs.

The Oireachtas committee on drugs use also heard calls from national youth organisations for the State to change funding criteria to enable youth groups to provide general supports and programmes for children as young as seven.

The youth organisations said more investment is needed to hire more staff, carry out administrative work, and build premises.

The Oireachtas committee on drugs use met on Thursday. Picture: Oireachtas.ie

Dwayne Horace, senior project worker at the Diamond Project, said that during the “feud” — referring to the Kinahan-Hutch feud that started in 2016 — some young children in the north inner city were “traumatised” by what they had seen.

He said they were exploited by gangs and groomed. He said the project was set up in September 2024 because of the level and “severity” of crime young people were committing.

Mr Horace said young people think they have “great status on the street”, being part of a criminal group, but many are drug users themselves and can be exploited by the gang. He said: 

Criminal organisations look to overtake houses if a parent goes out shopping for two to three hours. They use it to bag up drugs, distribute, and deliver.

He said a lot of young people “intimidate their own parents” because of the pressure from the street.

Diamond Project CEO Jenny Courtney, said that, of the 27 young people they currently work with “12 have already been charged with drug-related offences” and 21 are known to be using illegal drugs, typically cannabis. 

“A significant number of these young people are outside mainstream education and have additional learning or developmental needs,” she said.

“Half of the 12–18-year-olds we work with have a confirmed or suspected learning or behavioural diagnosis, making them far more vulnerable to coercion, exploitation, and harm.”

Among those addressing the Oireachteas committee were Margaret Flanagan and Christina Fogarty, manager and CEO respectively of Waterford & South Tipperary Community Youth Service, Youth Work Ireland; and Jenny Courtney, CEO, Diamond Project. Picture: Oireachtas.ie

Margaret Flanagan of Youth Work Ireland said there was a “gap” for children aged between 6 and 11 and that “significant investment” was needed.

Her colleague Christina Fogarty urged “flexibility” in youth work rules to allow organisations work with children as young as seven.

John Fitzgerald, Dublin area manager with Foróige, said there was a “huge overlap” with young people with dyspraxia and ADHD.

Ms Flanagan said that while there had been an “explosion” in young people with diagnoses, she believed adverse childhood trauma was a “much more” determining factor and that poverty was the “biggest” factor.