James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will reply to Deputy Troy's question first. There is money to staff these new units. We will introduce legislation very shortly to allow the three units to be run as one. I will give him an idea of the situation. The increase in the capacity of child detention schools also requires an associated increase in staffing levels. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has sanctioned the recruitment of an additional 67 residential care staff. Following a recruitment programme carried out in 2014, the first cohort of 38 new staff were taken up at the end of November and a further phase of recruitment is currently being advanced. It is intended that the required staff complement will be reached in the second quarter of 2015.

As Deputies will know, some of these are new units. They are all new units, but some of them will replace existing units and other ones are extra units. Therefore, we will have increased capacity and we will be able to facilitate the transfer of responsibility for 17 year old boys from adult prison facilities, meeting the Government's commitment that no children under the age of 18 will be in adult prison facilities.

To answer Deputy Ó Caoláin's question, I have not checked in the past number of days, but there are still 17 year olds on remand in St. Patrick's Institution.