Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 4 November 2025
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration
General Scheme of the Children (Amendment) Bill 2024: Discussion
2:00 am
Ms Saoirse Brady:
Yes. We would agree with that. I am a member of the youth justice advisory group, and this is something that has been discussed in the context of the youth justice strategy. I think it is the intention of the Government to deliver that. If we look up the road at Hydebank Wood in the North, they have a facility for 18- to 24-year-olds. It works really effectively. Again, it is about recognising the cognitive differences between those young adults and other adults. When we consider the adult prison population, about 10% of it is currently under the age of 25, which is that 18 to 24 cohort. It is a cliff edge. We have spoken to people who work at the Oberstown campus. They talk about the absolute despair those young people feel when they age out and have to go to adult prison, because it is so different from what they experience in Oberstown where it is really rehabilitative. We do not have that in the adult system with the current overcrowding levels.
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