Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis an tUasal Bergin agus an tOllamh Kilkelly as teacht isteach. The general commentary has been dealt with so I will proceed directly to specific questions. My first question is referred to in the director's own notes and briefing document. It states that 86% of residents are on remand. Is this too high and are there other facilities which might be more suitable? How long are people staying there on remand generally?

A number of comments have been made on the confidence and morale of staff. Certainly from speaking to staff, I am aware that a particular issue for many of them seems to be training and a feeling that there is no adequate training or provision for it. In that context, I note from the director's briefing note that night supervision officers do not require academic qualifications. Given that they are likely to be dealing with very difficult and challenging circumstances and incidents, is that appropriate? In addition, the management of actual or potential aggression, MAPA, course appears to be just a one-day course. Can that be clarified? I imagine that is not accurate.

I note the Estimates briefing which we will be dealing with in the next session sets out a fair deal of commentary on staffing. The witnesses were speaking about the difficulty of building a relationship with children from the point of view that they are in there for longer periods. There seems to be a very considerable reliance, however, on agency staff. Obviously, that is a difficulty in terms of the ability of staff to build rapports and trust and relationships. What is the ratio of full-time to agency staff?

On the number of incidents, approximately 88 were recorded in the past nine months. That amounts to approximately one incident every three days for that period. Given the number of children involved and some of the challenging behaviours that might present themselves in a facility such as this, the number of incidents seems lower than I might have imagined in some respects. What qualifies as an incident? What is reported as an incident? Is everything recorded? Does management ever direct staff not to contact the Garda Síochána in the case of an incident, regardless of seriousness? Are all calls to the Garda required to be authorised by management? Does management ever turn gardaí away after they have been summoned to the facility by a phone call in any circumstance? Would management ever overrule a risk assessment made by a staff member and in what circumstances might it do so? How would that proceed?

Have staff ever been warned about taking too many sick days? Are there penalties involved and, if so, what are they? Have staff ever been threatened with half pay in the event of taking too many sick days?