Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee TD, launches REPPP's new Greentown Reports

Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee TD has launched REPPP's new Greentown Reports and announced the commencement of a newly designed community intervention programme based on that research.

The Greentown project has lifted the lid on a hidden crime problem in Ireland, uncovering significant evidence of children’s engagement in crime networks.

The research indicates that up to 1,000 children across the State could be involved with a criminal network. Greentown, a partnership between the School of Law at University of Limerick, the Department of Justice and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) provides new insights into how criminal networks attract and confine children, encouraging and coercing them to be involved in serious crime and limiting their opportunities to escape their influence.

Launching the reports, Minister McEntee said: “I would like to thank Dr Sean Redmond and his colleagues for authoring these reports. It is vital that we break the link between criminal gangs and the young people they try to recruit into a life of crime.

“We must break the cycle of criminality as early as possible and the Greentown project gives us the tools we need to stop criminal gangs persuading young people to join their networks."