Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming before us today. I will start by saying that the most recent Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, report clearly demonstrates that improvements have been made in Oberstown but that there are still some outstanding concerns about the centre. The HIQA report indicates that, in terms of ten standards, the centre was found to be "moderately non-compliant". Five areas of particular concern include the care of children, planning for children, premises safety and security, dealing with offending behaviour, and staffing and management issues. While I acknowledge that there is good work going on, there is still more to be done, particularly with regard to the issue of single separation, which we discussed with the Minister previously. The latest HIQA report shows that single separation was used 1,700 times in 2017, indicating that a lot of work remains to be done on that issue.

On the issue before us today, namely, the withholding of the report, I note that correspondence obtained under freedom of information by RTE for the "This Week" programme shows that the chairperson of the board of Oberstown informed the Department of Children and Youth Affairs that the board would not publish the report because of "legal risks".

We are all agreed on that. It appears the legal risks were because members of the board were criticised in the report. Is that true? Does the Minister honestly believe that withholding the report, which appears to have done what it was supposed to do, namely identify the problems at the campus, is in the best interest of the detained children?