A number of “sensitive issues” should be addressed before any more teen parties are allowed, according to Children’s Commissioner Helen D’Amato.

Among several recommendations, Ms D’Amato says organisers should be screened to ensure they have a clean police conduct.

This follows news reports on alcohol-free parties held at popular nightclubs for under-17s and which were frequented by children as young as 11.

Facebook photos show girls as young as 14 dancing in costume lingerie, mimicking erotic dancers and allegedly being paid €10 for their services. It has also been reported that one of the organisers had a criminal record for engaging in sexual activities with a 13-year-old girl.

Ms D’Amato has made recommendations to the authorities calling for more regulation.

Among her proposals are a number of changes to the subsidiary legislation governing such parties to ensure a stipulated age-appropriate time-limit and a clear age limit. This is because the parties are frequented by adults in their 20s and pre-teens leading to what she has termed, “an unhealthy mix”.

She says the “adult behaviour” displayed by some of the patrons should be “discouraged” by keeping platforms, boxes and poles out of bounds.

Ms D’Amato has also called for more enforcement of existing legislation to make sure alcohol is not provided outside the venues. Witnesses have said that alcohol was sold to underage children from car booths outside the venues because alcohol inside is prohibited.

Meanwhile, she proposes, venue owners who apply for permission to organise the parties should provide all the names and ID card numbers of the people involved in planning, promotion, management and organisation. “Such persons should be screened to ensure that they have a clean conduct. The proprietor should be held responsible if it is found that such information is not given in full. Any proprietor found in breach of this regulation should be found guilty of an offence on the same lines as those set in the case where the regulation, with regard to alcohol, is breached,” she says.

Ms D’Amato says that the actual amendments to the laws or protocols should be formulated by a working group made up of stakeholders. “The group would report to the ministers concerned within a fixed timeframe,” she suggests.