Child-tracking scheme unveiled

Transport companies such as Dublin Bus, Iarnród Éireann and Luas as well as local authorities and the HSE are to co-operate in a new initiative aimed at tracking and rescuing abducted children.

Today was chosen for the announcement of Child Rescue Ireland - to be known as CRI Alert - as it is International Missing Children’s Day.

The initiative, which is already in operation in a number of European countries, was announced this morning by the Garda Commissioner Martin Callanan and Minister for Justice Alan Shatter.

It will involve the publication of information that will help people identify an abducted child, as well as suspects or vehicles involved in the abduction.

The public will be asked to immediately feed that information back to investigating gardaí. A similar scheme called Child Rescue Alert is under way in Britain and Northern Ireland.

Under the scheme, the details of missing children will be publicised in health centres, local authority offices, railways and buses.

However, a number of criteria must be met before an alert will be issued for a specific individual, the Garda Commissioner said.

These include that the person is under 18. A second criterion is that there must be a reasonable belief that the child has been abducted; a third is that there is a reasonable belief that there an immediate and serious risk to the child. A final qualification is that there is sufficient information to enable the public to assist the gardaí  in locating the child.

The initiative is a recommendation of the EU Council and was recommended in a Garda Inspectorate report published in 2009.