Mosquito Device "legally questionable" says Youth Work Ireland

This advice suggests the device “is capable, in its ordinary use of perpetrating a criminal assualt within the meaning of the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997, and therefore its user will leave himself , herself or itself liable to criminal prosecution” The organisation has called for the device to be investigated as a serious assault on the rights of young people. The advice also suggests that issues may arise under equality legislation.

“This advice confirms what we always thought that these devices are almost certainly in breach of the criminal law and problematic in terms of other areas of the law. Such a conclusion should have been obvious to any person supplying or fitting these devices. The rush by many retailers to install them demonstrates what little value is put on the lives of young people in society today. Effectively these retailers are saying young people can be subjected to an assualt and be treated unequally, we totally reject that view and call on the Gardai to seriously investigate these issues. We are also bringing our advice to the attention of the Ombudsman for Children and the Garda Commissioner” said Michael Mc Loughlin from Youth Work Ireland

“The idea that simply by congregating young people may be subjected to a criminal assault by adults would be deemed unacceptable if it were done in person. The same should apply in the case of an assault done by another method. Young people and children cannot simply be treated like animals in their communities. The use of this device has been tolerated for too long and needs to be taken seriously by the Gardai and Local Authorities” he concluded