And minors, around the same age, are being used to deliver warnings to families over a drug debt or collecting the money owed.

A recent report, detailed in the Irish Examiner last week, highlighted, yet again, the seriousness of the problem.

The study, compiled by the Blanchardstown Local Drugs and Alcohol Task Force, is now in its eighth year and covers the sprawling Dublin 15 area.

It said that since 2016, an increase in the number of young people aged under 18 dealing drugs has been reported.

Looking back over the last five years, it shows a fairly consistent picture of the average and youngest age of drug runners and drug dealers in the area:

• The typical age of drug runners has gone from 13 in 2018, to 10 in 2020 and to 12 in 2022;
• The youngest age of drug runners has fluctuated, from eight in 2018 to 10 in 2019, back down to eight in 2020, up to 10 in 2021 and down again to eight in 2022;
• The typical age of drug dealers went from 14 in 2018 and 2019 to 16 in 2020 and has stayed at that;
• The youngest age of drug dealers went from 10 in 2018 and 2019, to 12 in 2020 and 2021, and down to 10 in 2022.

The research, conducted by Janet Robinson and Jim Doherty, said: “The desire to increase social status is an important driver of drug dealing behaviour and to make ‘easy money’.” 

It said that within families, the children were getting involved through older siblings, and/or parents, who were dealing.

The research noted three environmental factors.

The first was increasing drug-related intimidation in Dublin 15: “There is likely a link between the increasing levels of drug-related intimidation and under 18s drug running and dealing, whereby young people are forced to hold and sell drugs to pay off debts.” 

The second factor was the “normalisation” of drug use, whereby drugs are perceived to be socially acceptable.

“This normalisation may influence a young person’s decision to become involved in drug running and dealing as they may not identify the negative consequences of such behaviour,” it said.

The third was the lesser, even limited, law enforcement risk: “The use of minors for drug distribution has been a long-standing method used by older, larger scale dealers, as due to their age there are fewer criminal consequences.

“This also has the consequence of easy access to customers, whereby young people distribute drugs to their peers and friends.” 

The publication of the report came little over a month after a shocking gangland attack in a restaurant in the Blanchardstown village left two men dead, including the gunman, Tristan Sherry.

He was overpowered and fatally injured after he opened fire in the restaurant, hitting Jason Hennessy Sr, fatally injuring him.

A number of sources in the community have pointed out that the dominant drug gang in the area, based in Corduff, has extensively recruited teenage boys still in school and young men into their network.

One such source said: “We know of kids, aged 12 or so, getting €400-€500 a week selling drugs — that’s cash they have every week.” 

Another source said he had spoken to a woman who had a little boy coming to her door, saying that he had been told to give her a warning about the money her son owed.

“So the threat comes from a child,” the source said. “How frightening is that?” 

Speaking before the Dublin Joint Policing Committee last year, Sinn Féin councillor for Ballyfermot and Drimnagh, Daithí Doolan told members of a child, aged eight, who was being used by a gang to collect a drug debt from a family that has so far paid out a total of €30,000.

He said: “She paid the 30 grand and the last time, we were giving our support, we said ‘you need to tell the people you have no more money, you can't pay anymore’.

“She said ‘Sure, I don't see them — it's an eight-year-old that comes on a bike and collects the money. I give him the money and he goes'.” 

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.

One initiative that works with young people sucked into gangland is the Solas Project, which covers Dublin’s southwest inner city as well as Crumlin and Drimnagh.

Speaking at the assembly, Solas justice programme manager Ashling Golden said: “The drugs gangs have a huge grip on the most marginalised communities in society, and at the moment they are winning, and young people are losing out. 

"Young people find themselves caught up in the drugs trade not because they want to be there, but poverty and trauma is leading them there.

“There’s a whole section of society who are looking to exploit the situation, and groom vulnerable young children into criminality. 

The fear of a prison sentence is not enough to stop young people going down this path, unfortunately.

The former CEO of Solas, Eddie D’Arcy has been a youth worker for more than 40 years.

“I see the Blanchardstown study says the average age of dealers is around 15 to 16 and I’d agree with that,” he said.

He said that, unfortunately, there is never going to be a shortage of young people looking to get in on the trade.

“The temptation of the money is too much, it’s very easy money. 

"And these kids are not going to set up a savings account and save it. 

"Kids that age are going to spend it, flash the cash around.” 

Mr D’Arcy said the gangs love using the children: “They are very easily managed and intimidated, and they tell them ‘if you are arrested, you’re a minor and it will just be a JLO [Juvenile Liaison Scheme]’.” 

He said Solas had three different programmes: Compass, which works in prisons; TRY, an intensive street project with 10 young men and Rua, which works with 40 young men before the courts.

“The programmes in all are targeting about 100 people aged 16-26 and we have a waiting list for every one of the programmes,” he said.

Mr D’Arcy said it is “not easy” to extricate oneself from a gang, adding that the “biggest difficulty” was financial debt.

“Trying to get someone away from this life, it’s a long, slow, hard slog,” he said. “That’s why no one gets thrown off our programmes, we give them four to five years of support.” 

Academics in the University of Limerick have, for a number of years, been examining criminal networks and the use of children, in what is known as the Greentown project.

Last month, the team at the Research Evidence into Policy, Programmes and Practice (REPPP) in the School of Law, received funding from the Department of Justice for a further three years.

Its director, Adjunct Professor Seán Redmond, said he was not surprised by the findings in the Blanchardstown report.

“Sadly, the report resonates significantly with what we uncovered in the Greentown study,” he said.

“The gateway to children’s involvement in drug sales usually starts with existing familial or friendship ties or drawn to being part of something that provides immediate social status. 

“However, something like an unpaid drugs debt by a child or family member quickly turns the character of their relationship with a network from attraction to coercion.” 

He said: “Add to this, a lived experience of stifling menace and threat and an overwhelming sense that there is no escape from the network’s influence, and its easy to see how indentured relationships between networks and children persist and are normalised.” 

Dr Redmond said that through their study they were starting to understand better how these things tick.

He said “poor, vulnerable children” tend to be the targets.

He said there were “no easy answers” but said it may be possible to “reduce” the influence of criminal networks.

“Where there is evidence of local network activity we could start by thinking ‘how we can better protect such children and families from predatory grooming for crime?’ 

Dr Redmond said they could specifically target the individual aggressors, engaging children and their families targeted by networks in effective pro-social programmes that offer new opportunities and simultaneously investing in positive community-based activity that reclaims the space from those that serve to continue the misery.

“This may sound unconventional but we are dealing with an unconventional problem.”