Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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I thank HIQA for its report. It was an eye-opener for me. Oberstown is in my constituency and during my recent visit, I had a very thorough engagement with the staff and young adults. I want to thank the staff in particular for their hospitality and the young adults who engaged with me. It is incredibly disappointing that a detention centre of this nature was not designed as detention facility. If it had been designed as a detention facility, we would not have had the basic design flaws of access to both exterior and interior first floor spaces. The design of the doors was flawed and this is inexcusable. The expertise is available in the State and I do not know why this expertise was not engaged to design the centre. It obviously predates this Government. Oberstown has been in existence for many years but some of the buildings are relatively new additions. We have to pick up the pieces, which is both disappointing and expensive.

I will now elaborate on the quality of care that is being provided in Oberstown. In some areas it is very good but improvements can be made in other areas. Great improvements have been made in the health care provision on campus. I refer to the availability of personnel at the appropriate levels of training on site and little things that were highlighted within the HIQA report, such as the staff not being trained up to administer an EpiPen injection or something along those lines. It is important to have GPs on call or on campus or both.

It is important that there is ongoing engagement by Oberstown with the surrounding community. I know this was not covered in the HIQA report but I commend Mr. Pat Bergin, his staff and the team on the level of engagement with the community. However, I personally have concerns about the security outside the campus boundaries that is provided at great cost to taxpayer, which is completely unnecessary. I think we need to nip items such as that in the bud. We can install improved camera systems or even feedback for the community with a liaison person, rather than spending a great deal of money on employing a man in a van, pointing in the wrong direction when I arrived and left. I even saw this when I passed it recently. I think this is unnecessary. I was informed that such activities are being ramped downwards but we should be looking at them better.

The Minister is to be complimented on the implementation of the policy to ensure no young person has been placed in adult facilities since March 2017. That is a significant achievement by the Minister and her officials. It is a basic principle to which the State should adhere. The fact that this has been managed on the Minister's watch is important.

The only other matter I wished to raise was single separation, which to be fair has been covered. I appreciated the circumstances that were described to me while I was standing in a cell that is used to isolate an individual. I appreciate entirely the circumstances that staff might find themselves, having repeatedly tried to resolve an issue. I have no expertise in this area, but as a parent, a person who has been in a classroom and even was present during a fracas, I can understand the reason that such a facility would be important. The prolonged use of single separation, however, is nothing short of inhumane. I do not find it acceptable or excusable that HIQA was forced to highlight that horrific set of circumstances that were endured by an individual child. I sincerely hope the Department and staff have learned the lessons that have to be learned in that case and that we attempt to minimise the implementation of that in the future.