Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Shatter for tabling this question because it allows me to outline the correct position. The Government is committed in the programme for Government to invest in the provision of appropriate detention facilities for young offenders. I take the opportunity to clarify that the Government's plans to develop new children detention school facilities do not amount to the development of prisons, and it is misleading to label them as such as some newspapers have done in the past week. The industrial school concept, referred to by the Deputy in his question, has been abolished since the commencement of the relevant sections of the Children Act 2001 earlier this year and the facilities which will be developed will follow the children detention schools model, precisely the model envisaged in the Children Act 2001, as amended. Children detention schools are focused on the care, welfare and education of young offenders within a secure environment. The objectives of these schools are the provision of education and training and the preparation of the young persons to make positive and productive contributions to their communities on their return to them. They are very different to prison environments and they are not staffed by prison officers. The reference to these establishments as prisons or, as the Deputy put it in his question, industrial schools is inaccurate, although I do not fault the Deputy for it because the report appeared in the newspapers.

In October 2004, a youth justice task force was established to examine the entire youth justice system and make recommendations to improve structures and services. A youth justice reform package was brought to the Government arising from this review. Among the recommendations approved by the Government in December 2005 was the transfer of responsibility for children detention schools from the Department of Education and Science to my Department, to come under the auspices of the Irish Youth Justice Service. The Government also agreed to extend the children detention school model from children aged under 16, to children aged up to 18 years, removing all children from the prison system.

There are currently four children detention schools. Three of these: Oberstown Boys School, Oberstown Girls School and Trinity House are located on a single site in Lusk, County Dublin. The fourth, Finglas Child and Adolescent Centre, a former industrial school, is located in Finglas. The transfer of these schools required legislative changes and the necessary amendments to the Children Act 2001 came into effect on 1 March 2007. The existing buildings are in need of substantial investment and redevelopment and new detention school accommodation is needed to extend the system to include 16 and 17 year old children. Young males aged between 16 and 17 are currently accommodated in St. Patrick's Institution. This facility will continue to be used, only as an interim measure, until sufficient children detention school places are completed. Planning for the additional accommodation is under way. Sufficient space is available on land already owned by the State to accommodate any necessary developments.

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