Thirty children trafficked for sexual exploitation in two years

Thirty children were detected being trafficked around Ireland for sexual exploitation over a two-year period, the Dáil was told during a debate on legislation to combat child grooming.

Fine Gael TD Marcella Corcoran Kennedy highlighted the detection by gardaí of the 30 children, between 2013 and 2014, as she introduced her Criminal Law (Child Grooming) Bill which legislates for a 14-year jail sentence for online grooming of children for sexual purposes.

Ms Corcoran Kennedy said they could ensure those seeking to harm children “cannot use legal confusion to escape justice”.

The provisions include the offence of communicating with a child by whatever means, online or offline, with a view to gaining the trust of that child in order to do anything that would constitute sexual exploitation.

It will also be an offence to encourage, solicit, request, procure, entice or counsel a child to do any act, including meeting an adult.

The Bill was introduced as Ireland faces international pressure to outline the measures it has in place to protect children from sexual abuse and grooming.

Ms Corcoran Kennedy noted that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, two weeks ago set a four-month deadline for the State to respond.

The Laois Offaly TD also put pressure on the Government to introduce by the end of the Dáil term next week, its long-awaited Sexual Offices Bill which specifically addresses online child grooming offences and also targets the buyers of sex.

Heads of the Bill, the initial outlines of the legislation, were produced in Novemeber last year.

Ms Corcoran Kennedy said that when she recently raised the need for urgent publication of the Bill with the Taoiseach in the Dáil, she “was advised that it would be published within this Dáil term so I sincerely hope that it is still on that time schedule”.

The Government accepted Ms Corcoran Kennedy’s Bill and will incorporate her provisions in the Sexual Offences Bill.

Government Chief Whip Paul Kehoe said the Government's Bill will criminalise people who make contact with children online or through mobile technology such as texting for sexual exploitation.

“The offence is targeted at the initial stages of grooming and does not require physical contact or meeting between the adult and child.”

And the communication does not necessarily have to contain a sexual advance or include sexual material.

Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Niall Collins said the Government's Bill "has been stagnant for too long". Mr Collins said the justice committee had met sex workers during deliberations on the Bill and were told that "the younger the sex worker, the more in demand she was". He said "that is why we need a robust response in our criminal law. It is regrettable that it has not been achieved before now".

Sinn Féin’s Sandra McLellan said the Bill must make clear that only an Garda Síochána can take part in sting operations against paedophiles. “I do not want to see a situation in which vigilantes target paedophiles of their own accord through sting operations online.”

She said the focus for the Minister for Justice must be to give An Garda Síochána the information technology equipment and human resources that it needs.

Fine Gael TD and former school principal Mary Mitchell O’Connor warned parents that they needed to monitor their children’s online behaviour at all times.

Parents should make no mistake about it, she said. “There are depraved individuals surfing the Internet and social media with the intent of corrupting and soliciting your children to be involved in sexually depraved acts.”

Ms Mitchell O’Connor said “no responsible parent would allow her child to wander down O’Connell Street or a street in any city without supervision. Yet parents seem to believe it is safe for children to surf the Internet and online chat rooms.”