Ms Ber Grogan:

If I can just jump in quickly, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNCRC, Article 37(c) states that every child deprived of liberty shall be separated from adults unless it is considered in the child's best interest not to do so, and, obviously, the State is up for review under the UNCRC next year. That we need to stop this practice is something the UNCRC flagged in previous years. I completely understand the Department of Health officials, who were in for the first session, and the Mental Health Commission, which was in last week, saying that in emergency circumstances it might happen, and that they might be 17-year-olds and it might be for one night until they are transferred to an appropriate child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, unit. However, that is not the ambition we should be striving for; it should be that age appropriate facilities are available when needed.