A seven-year-old boy is among four seriously injured people in hospital after a crash in County Kildare in which five teenagers were killed while driving the wrong way down a motorway.

Two women are in a critical condition, while another woman and the boy are in a serious condition after the head-on crash.

It’s believed the injured family – two women aged in their 30s and one in her 20s, and the young boy – were travelling to the airport to go on holiday.

Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheál Martin said his thoughts and prayers were with the injured and the death of the five teenage boys brought untold grief.

The crash happened between junction 3 and junction 4 of the M9 motorway, at Moone, at about 03:00 local time on Sunday.

Ireland’s Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said on Monday that he condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the “reckless criminal behaviour”.

“I also want to emphasis that anyone who makes the decision to drive a vehicle deliberately the wrong way down a motorway is engaged in lethally dangerous behaviour and it must stop,” O’Callaghan said.

He said he spoke with the Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly on Monday and had emphasised to him that the gardaí “will have whatever resources they require from government in order to respond to this threat to public safety”.

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) said tougher laws are needed to deal with people driving in dangerous ways.

GRA’s James Morrisoe said people are playing “Russian roulette” with their own lives and lives of innocent members of the public through dangerous driving.

Martin added that it was the “second appalling crash we’ve seen on our roads in a matter of days as a result of the reckless driving of a car on the wrong side of the motorway, endangering the lives of innocent road users”.

He said it was an “irresponsible and dangerous act, and it is shocking that in some cases it is being done for likes on social media”.

O’Callaghan said it was important to emphasis that social media companies “have a big responsibility in respect of this”.

“They emphasis in their codes of practice that they will not allow any postings that glorify criminal behaviour.

“Regrettably, that hasn’t been happening and social media companies need to step up to the mark as well in respect of their own responsibilities.”

Irish broadcaster RTE is reporting, external that the family is from the Carlow area.

It adds that several of the boys who died in the crash had “strong links” to Carlow town and to Athy in County Kildare.

A parish priest has said people are “struggling for words to try and make sense” of it.

Parish priest Fr Seamus McEntee said it was a “terrible tragic situation”.

“People are bewildered, people are shocked, people are finding it just really hard to understand,” he said.

“Bits of the jigsaw puzzle are coming together, the story is emerging, but people are saying ‘maybe that could have been me on the way to the airport’.”

Another priest, Fr Tom Little said he was in contact with some of the families of the teenagers who died and said they were heartbroken.

He said he was also in touch with the family of the three women and young boy to wish them a speedy recovery.

“It’ll be a long road too to recover from the families that have lost loved ones,” he said.

“We express our deepest sincere sympathy to them in their loss and our prayers and our thoughts are for those that are injured and wish speedy recovery.”

Gardaí (Irish police) have said no pursuit was taking place before the collision occurred.

The Republic of Ireland’s police ombudsman, Fiosrú is carrying out its own investigation into the crash.

The child and family agency Tusla said its staff are working to provide support to the local families and communities affected, and that it “will provide any information necessary” to support gardaí as they investigate.

The GRA’s Morrisoe said the organisation is looking for “tougher legislation, tougher sentencing for people who partake in these events”.

He added: “Currently none of our members are pursuit trained.

“That means we cannot legally pursue anybody who’s partaking in these incidents.”

He called for “proper pursuit training for our members”.

O’Callaghan said on Monday that the Commissioner has emphasised that he is going to introduce pursuit training, which will start this year.

“We will have to consider the introduction of a separate offence in respect of individuals who make a deliberate decision to drive their vehicles the wrong way down a motorway,” O’Callaghan said.

“That is using a vehicle as a weapon and it is a lethal form of behaviour that, as we say over the weekend, results in deaths and serious injuries.”

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly described those injured in the crash as “family members” who were “travelling innocently” when they were struck by the car driving on the wrong side of the motorway.

He described it as a “horrific incident” and “irresponsible and dangerous driving”.

“What makes this reckless behaviour even more appalling is that in some cases it is being done for social media likes regardless of the potentially devastating impact it might have on innocent people and themselves.”

Kelly added that police “do what they can to stop such vehicles while also taking into consideration all other road users”.

Councillor Ivan Keatley, of Fine Gael, said he understood the alarm was raised by a motorist who “came upon the horrific scene” and said the emergency services had attended “almost immediately”.

“Horrific is the only way that could describe the condition that the two cars were left in,” he told BBC NI’s Good Morning Ulster programme.

Keatley added: “It’s a real sense, I suppose initially of shock and absolutely of disbelief.

“But I think since that, that has grown into an almost sense of anger that this could be allowed to happen.”

Keatley said the crash was “following a pattern” and there had been two similar incidents on the M50 motorway in Dublin “in the last few weeks”.