Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy will know that for many years I expressed concerns about St. Patrick's Institution and believed it was an inappropriate facility for children. I was instrumental in ensuring that the programme for Government included a specific commitment to end the practice of sending children there. I visited St. Patrick's within two weeks of my appointment and I met the Inspector of Prisons at his request in early May last to discuss the matter with him.

I published the St. Patrick's visiting committee report for 2010 on 18 November 2011. As stated in its report for that year, the committee had met monthly and carried out some 48 random unannounced visits during the year. In that context, it reported on a number of issues and developments generally within the prison relating to accommodation, kitchen and gymnasium facilities, staffing, education, the library, workshops and facilities generally.

The inspector's report, which I published last October, raised serious issues and major concerns, including weak management, the behaviour of some prison staff, the culture in the prison, the inattention to human rights norms, prisoners on protection and the prevalence of drugs. The inspector concluded that there has been a culture in St Patrick's which resulted in the human rights of some prisoners - children and young adults - being either ignored or violated. The inspector also reported that the visiting committee appears to be carrying out its mandate under the relevant legislation and that its chairman had raised a number of issues with him.

An action plan is now in place implementing all of the inspector's recommendations, with more than 80% of the recommendations having been implemented to date.

I have yet to publish the visiting committee's annual report for 2011. In light of the inspector's report, I asked if the committee would consider the issues raised by the inspector and whether it would wish to comment on its contents in the context of its report for 2011. I will publish its report when I receive its response.

As the Deputy is aware, the Government committed in the programme for Government to ending the practice of sending children to St. Patrick's Institution. The practice of sending 16-year-old boys to St. Patrick’s ceased on 1 May 2012. From that date, all newly remanded or sentenced 16 year olds have been detained in the child detention facilities at Oberstown, Lusk, County Dublin. The detention of children at St. Patrick’s Institution will end with the provision of more appropriate accommodation and regimes in the new detention facility at Oberstown by mid-2014. Last week, the Government allocated €20.4 million in capital funding for 2013 to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs to enable this project to proceed.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

In the interim, the Irish Prison Service is devising a specific strategy for the management of young offenders, working with its partners and other agencies to ensure that the regime for young offenders is age-appropriate and that best practice is observed. Central to this strategy is enhanced co-operation with the Irish Youth Justice Service, including the placement of a number of care staff from the child detention school to work alongside prison staff in St Patrick's. It is intended that this will take place in mid-January 2013. In addition, the feasibility of accommodating some categories of the 17-year-old age group in the child detention schools before mid-2014 is being actively examined.

As part of this strategy, the prison service will also review the overall approach taken to the placement of 18 to 21 year olds, in line with my intention to introduce primary legislation for the purpose of closing St. Patrick's Institution as a detention centre for persons aged 21 and under.

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