A greater effort needs to be made to find children who have been abducted by a non-custodial parent and brought to live in this country, according to Father Aquinas Duffy, who has set up a website to help people find missing persons.
The Dublin priest's comments come in the wake of the death of six-year-old Deirdre Crowley, who was murdered by her father, Chris Crowley, two years after being abducted from her home in Cork.
"This form of abduction needs to be taken seriously - there is danger there.
We dismiss cases like this so easily. There is so much we can learn from this case in terms of how we handle other child abductions in Ireland."
Father Duffy said necessary resources should be put in place to track down a seven-year-old American girl, Shelby Nicole Cannon, who has not been seen since her mother brought her to Ireland on a holiday in 1998.
A felony warrant for kidnapping was issued for her non-custodial Irish mother, Catherine Collins, on November 30th, 1999.
It is known that the child attended a school in Navan in 1998/1999.
Shelby Cannon is described as being biracial, with brown hair and blue eyes.
Her father, Josef Cannon, who lives in Los Angeles, said that he fears for Shelby's safety as time goes by.
"Time is a big factor here. The longer this goes on the more frightened Catherine will be when apprehended and the bigger chance she may cause harm to this innocent child."
Father Aquinas said it is incredible to think that Shelby Cannon and other children like her could be enrolled in schools around the country.
"She may be enrolled somewhere under a false name. What are the schools doing about this? You would think that a transfer letter would be needed when a child comes from abroad."
The priest was instrumental in finding ten-year-old Liam Patrick (Doolan) Wheelan, who was abducted by his father in England and brought to Ireland.
The boy was recently located after publicity was generated by an article in an Irish Sunday newspaper.
He has since been reunited with his mother in the UK.
Members of the business community have been called upon by Father Aquinas to examine the possibility of featuring pictures of missing children/persons on a range of products.
Father Duffy first became involved when his cousin Aengus (Gussie) Shanahan (20) went missing on the February 11th, 2000.
Meanwhile, David Linehan from Cork is in the process of setting up a support network.
For further information contact David Linehan at 0214 303120 or access the missing persons' website at: www.missing.ws