Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 February 2018
208. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the extent to which adequate early warning systems exist to alert her Department to the threat cyber grooming poses to children and young persons; the extent to which the issue can be combatted; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9243/18]
View answerMy Department does not have a lead responsibility in this area and, accordingly, does not have specific measures of the type described by the Deputy.
Combatting online child grooming is a matter for my colleague the Minister for Justice and Equality, Mr.Charlie Flanagan T.D., and is addressed as part of a wide-ranging package of measures aimed at the reform of Ireland's criminal law on sexual offences, set out in Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act, 2017.
