Children, aged 7, arriving at school under the influence of drugs, Oireachtas committee told

TD says young pupils are being 'groomed' and used as 'drug mules'

Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan said that such actions were 'child abuse'. File picture

Children as young as seven are arriving at school under the influence of drugs, an Oireachtas committee has heard.

Fine Gael TD for Louth, Paula Butterly, told the justice committee that schools in Drogheda had told her of incidents involving so-called “drug mules”.

She added that teachers were “tearing their hair out” due to the situation.

“I visited a couple of schools in Drogheda who are struggling with their students. 

"Now, these are primary schools, so they’re very, very young children, and the issues there are... that they are being groomed and used now to be drug mules.

“We have incidences where there are children as young as seven coming in high into school. 

"The teachers are pulling their hair out because they don't know how to deal appropriately with these children, because their home situation due to addiction or due to poverty. They feel hopeless because there’s not the supports there.”

Ms Butterly said that there had been issues in Drogheda with gang violence. 

Locals had “thought we had lobbed the head of the snake off” but “when you cut off the snake’s head, another one grows”, she said. 

She said that in many cases, those using the children as drug mules were children themselves.

Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan said that such actions were “child abuse”.

If there are children who are being forced into criminal activity by adults, that is child abuse. We should call it child abuse. The legislation is in place in respect of it, but I think maybe from society, we can categorise it as child abuse, which it is. That may have some impact on the persons who are engaged in this public criminal behaviour.

Mr O’Callaghan had earlier defended his government’s record on tackling drug-related intimidation under Operation Fógra, which was launched in 2021 to combat intimidation by drug gangs and dealers.

In response, Gary Gannon said that since it was launched, there has been a 37% increase in drug-related intimidation.

The Social Democrats spokesman on justice said that of 2,500 incidents, only 4% had been prosecuted.

Mr O’Callaghan said he still viewed the operation as successful adding: “I know from speaking to the commissioner and senior gardaí they take it extremely seriously and people have been prosecuted.”

He also said the “prosecution rates are increasing”, to which Mr Gannon countered “so are the arson attacks”. 

He said there had been 13 arson attacks in 2022 and “it’s 50 this year”.

Mr Gannon also criticised the budget for the Government’s Drug Related Intimidation & Violence Engagement (Drive) project, which had been €280,000 for the year.