Cormac O'Keeffe: Rescuing children from the 'menace' of gangs

With the drugs trade grooming kids as young as eight, youth workers say it can be a 'long, hard slog' to free them from gangs

Last September, youth workers told the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use that kids aged 10, 11, and 12 are being groomed into local criminal gangs.

Children aged 12 earn up to €500 a week in cash selling drugs.

Younger kids, as young as eight, work as errand boys for the older kids, carrying drugs for them.