Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Bergin and Professor Kilkelly for coming in here this morning. It was my request that they attend this meeting. The background to that request is that I am not long in this position but since taking on the role of spokesperson for children and youth affairs for the Fianna Fáil Party I have been inundated, week in and week out with commentary on Oberstown. This repeats commentary received by my predecessor, Deputy Troy, the previous year. I can totally understand that it takes time to bed down a situation and to bring together the three different houses Mr. Bergin talks about but all the while I assume we would have been learning through the whole process.

This summer, however, seems to have been particularly bad, maybe only because I am new to this. Children have got onto a roof, there have been fires and rooms closed down repeatedly. There are nine units but four are now closed. We talk about capacity and the ability to care and to protect staff, children and management. I am trying to understand the environment, which is supposed to involve rehabilitation and that is why these children are in that unit. That is the style and model for that unit but to my untrained eye there is no sense that the management, staff and children are working in a safe, comfortable and rehabilitative environment. That is not good practice.

The fundamental key to help the children in the rehabilitation programme is education. How many hours do they attend daily in education? I am concerned about there being one girl on the campus. I have concerns about the risk factors for staff and children and what we are doing to prevent a serious accident occurring. I thought it could not get any worse, when I heard a room had been closed down, then I heard they were on the roof, that there was a fire, the kitchen was taken over and there was scalding water, cups were broken and that some of the children are more in control than the staff. That raises serious questions. I have been raising the question of Oberstown since last June. I do not like making media headlines out of something that I am not totally involved in but I am posing those questions out of genuine concern for the children and the staff who are trying to deliver a programme. I would appreciate anything Mr. Bergin can tell me on that. I will probably will raise more questions later.