Mr. Kevin McCarthy:

From a cost-effectiveness perspective, there is no question that the best investments are early intervention and support - specifically, the kind of supports mentioned by the Deputy that would avoid any child having to spend time in a facility like Oberstown. The Oberstown model is clearly expensive, particularly by virtue of what it does, which is very much trying to provide education, training and welfare, rehabilitation and therapeutic supports to very small numbers of children. It is a very intensive model of intervention for those children who reach a stage where they need to be detained or remanded to Oberstown, unfortunately. There are 33 young people there at the moment. The Deputy is right to point out that, per capita, it is a very expensive model of provision. It is a necessary element of the overall hierarchy of provision where the fundamental and primary objective is to provide necessary supports to all young people in the setting and through the means that have the best impact. That is early intervention, support and training.