Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for taking the time at this late hour to address my question and look forward to working with her and putting children at the centre of our briefs. I come to her with an issue that is live and very real for the people who work in and the patients who are inmates or service users of the Oberstown centre. Just before I came into the House, I heard of another crisis. A young child has escaped from Unit 9 and is on the roof of one of the buildings.

Both the unions and Oberstown centre management have agreed to talks at the Workplace Relations Commission next Wednesday, which is to be welcomed. However, I find the approach the Minister has adopted in response to the work stoppage concerning. I read in The Irish Timesyesterday that there was no basis for this industrial action to take place. If it were a dispute about pay, I would have no issues with it. The Minister will correct me if I am wrong, but I believe there is no basis for this action under the Lansdowne Road agreement.

Because I am new to my role, I have looked at what has been going on regarding the Oberstown centre in the past 12 months. It appears that my colleague, Deputy Robert Troy, who has moved to a different post has been raising the issue since last year. Last July there were a number of incidents. A number of different children escaped and there was a report of a stabbing incident there. The issues raised by the workers are of real concern. This is their cry for help. This is how they are managing to gain attention - bringing matters to the fore by holding stoppages. They are very genuine. Health and safety at the Oberstown centre are the kernel of the issue.

Staff who, I can assure the Minister, are dedicated to their job complain they are massively overburdened and simply do not have time to build personal relationships of trust with the children in their care. There have been a number of violent incidents which I have referred to, and last summer there were security issues.

It certainly seems the case that not enough was done to ensure the Oberstown facility was fully operational and staff were properly trained prior to the intake of 17 year olds from St. Patrick's and Wheatfield last year. Between March and July last year, nine female and 22 male staff suffered injuries, including concussion, nerve damage, throat injury, stabbings and bites. More assaults have taken place since then.

The unions, IMPACT and SIPTU, state the four-hour stoppage was carried out on Tuesday and staff and residents at this centre are exposed to daily risks of violent assault. That is their cry for help. The care workers and other employees took part in industrial action from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. over what they say is poor safety measures and an increasing number of assaults on the campus.

The campus caters for 48 teenagers under the age of 18 and the union states that 100 violent incidents occurred at Oberstown last year, almost half of which were classified as critical. Due to management inaction on procedures, many staff at Oberstown feel that the centre is no longer based on a child care model and has become a containment facility.

Last year Deputy Troy wrote to the then Minister, now Senator James Reilly, on the matter, referring to the severe staff shortages and the lack of standardisation of workplace practices within Oberstown. Yesterday, I noted that the manager of Oberstown said that a recruitment drive is under way to increase staffing levels and that there has been investment in protection equipment. That was highlighted last July, this is 1 June and we are still looking at recruiting the staff.

The care workers who work there every day say that health and safety is the issue, and it clearly is. We are supposed to be encouraging the children and teens attending the service to return to the community as part of their rehabilitation. However, yesterday morning, we closed the doors and locked them away. While we have had fine days here in Dublin and the sun has been out, everybody in the centre had to endure the same lockdown again for health and safety reasons because the staff had to try to retrieve a young man off a roof.

Those same children have been locked away twice, and this was not the choice of the care workers. The stoppage is their way of highlighting to the Minister and to me the issues in Oberstown. I plead with the Minister to listen sensitively to the workers and take all on board. Let us try to put the ethos of what we want, what is best for these young teens, at the centre of it. These teens have the right to rehabilitation and to intervention in order that they can get back into the community. They have been removed from Wheatfield and St. Patrick's to ensure that.

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