GARDAI in Dundalk are investigating the possible involvement of at least six local teenagers in prostitution. Community workers hear that the number involved is growing and could he as high as 11. They are concerned that unless the prostitution is dealt with immediately, it will become more organised.
A list of teenagers involved or at risk of becoming involved is known to gardai and staff of the North Eastern Health Board as well as community workers. The teenagers are aged between 13 and 16 and gather at a number of public places near the centre of the town. Two are boys and one claims he is homosexual.
Supt Michael Staunton says six uniformed and detective gardai are investigating the problem but are unable to take action without evidence. The gardai say evidence is required from both the child and the adult involved to prosecute in these cases.
Supt Staunton says gardai have the names of some of the men soliciting the children. "We have certain information about them. Some of them would already be known to us, but of course we have much more work to do in this regard yet. If it is allowed to go unchecked, the possibility of the prostitution becoming more organised is there."
Some adolescents involved are known to the gardai for involvement in petty crime and some have been identified as being "at risk" by the North Eastern Health Board. They gather around the Newry bridge which, since the by pass opened earlier this year, is no longer used by traffic heading from Dundalk to the Border.
They also gather in the vicinity of public telephones near Bridge Street, Clanbrassil Street and the Market Square.
The teenagers charge about £25 for "hand relief" and about £40 for oral sex. The price for anal sex involving the boys is said to be close to £100. Some adults who offered shelter to the teenagers who have refused to stay at home with their parents or in residential care provided by the NEHB subsequently introduced them to prostitution. Older women approached some of the teenage girls and asked them to go "on the streets" with them.
The parents of these children are looking for help and some have criticised the health board for not taking their children into While the NEHB cannot comment on individual cases, it says it is co operating fully with the Garda investigation into "a small number of unsubstantiated reports of children involved in sexual acts with adults and we are aware that a special Garda team has been set up who have attended case conferences with the health board".
The health board says there is no formal evidence of any organised child prostitution ring in the north east.
The Garda, the health board, the Louth Youth Federation and the probation and welfare services in Dundalk have sought EU funding to allow a steering group respond "to the issue of child prostitution in the town and provide for those young people most at risk in Dundalk".
The project has been submitted to the EU Fund for Peace and Reconciliation and proposes to develop a two year plan, which would include a centre based in the town which can reach the target group of 12 to 18 year olds "when they are most at risk, e.g; weekends and nights".
The steering group has "identified a group of teenagers who are involved in drug abuse, prostitution, joyriding and crime".
The North Eastern Health Board says the responsibility for children rests with the parents and it is only when that relationship fails that the board will step in and then only with the agreement of the family.
It says the preferred route is that the child goes voluntarily into care and can then benefit from a partnership involving the board, the family and others in the community. To succeed with a child from a dysfunctional family requires the involvement of the family itself and the health board has a range of family support services.
These include child care workers and social workers for the individual children and families, child and adolescent psychiatric services and public health nurses.
Supt Staunton says the reports which the Garda has indicate a parental control problem "and that is at the root of the problem. These young people are away from their homes, out of the reach of their parents and that's where the problem starts".
He says street workers, as proposed by the steering group who have applied for EU funding, would be tremendously important".
Brian Doyle is a community worker with The House, a project partly funded by the NEHB and the Louth Youth Federation that works with disadvantaged children in Dundalk.
"I believe that since last Christmas the problem has doubled," he says. "I believe there is anything from five to 12 kids aged from 13-17 on the streets of Dundalk in child prostitution. I don't think it is organised at the moment, but it is only a matter of time before it is. That's why things need to be done now.
"I have talked to parents who have openly told me that their children are at prostitution. It is only at ground level like that the real problem is and there is nobody looking there.
"To be fair, a representative of the NEHB, myself, the Garda and the Louth Youth Federation have got together and applied for funding to get street workers and a place we can take these kids to and off the streets at night when this problem is happening.
"It doesn't happen from nine to five, it is in the evenings, and unfortunately the health board is closed in the evening."