Dáil debates
Wednesday, 1 June 2016
Adjournment Debate
Industrial Disputes
8:05 pm
Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The third Adjournment Debate matter is in the name of Deputy Anne Rabbitte and concerns staff safety and industrial relations at Oberstown Youth Detention Centre in County Dublin.
Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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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.
8:15 pm
Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I thank Deputy Anne Rabbitte for raising this issue. It is our first exchange and I appreciate her contribution. We are at one in our concern about the ethos of which she spoke.
As Minister with responsibility for children and young people, I am committed, first and foremost, to the provision of an appropriate, safe and secure environment for children in custody on the Oberstown campus. These children are cared for by staff who deserve to have a safe working environment.
I can tell from Deputy Rabbitte's remarks that we would agree that detention is intended to be a last resort for children. It is justified when it works effectively for both the children who are detained in Oberstown and the personnel who are responsible for their care.
It has been Government policy in recent to end the practice of detaining children in adult prison facilities. This policy has had cross-party support. Until now 17 year old boys serving a sentence have been sent to prison, but later this year we will finally end this practice. They will instead be sent to Oberstown. It is not a prison. It is a children detention centre. To achieve this, we are recruiting additional care staff, as Deputy Rabbitte refers. I hope all Members of this House and our predecessors who have advocated for an end to the detention of children in adult prisons will take comfort in that fact that we have moved to a more enlightened way of working with children in custody. In recent years a reform programme has been under way to make this a reality and I acknowledge the contribution of our staff in Oberstown and thank them for that. They have played a key role in delivering this change.
In addition, there has been a substantial capital investment programme in new detention buildings, the gradual transfer of responsibility for older boys to the site, legislative reform under the Children (Amendment) Act 2015, and the first programme of staff recruitment on the campus in a number of years. Important governance reforms have also been undertaken, including the establishment of shared services across the campus, a single human resource team and training office under a single campus director.
The issues that have been mentioned in the current industrial dispute, and Deputy Rabbitte referred to several of them, include effective practices for managing the behaviour of children in custody, staff safety, the management of the transition of children from the adult prison system to Oberstown and the design of new detention buildings. I welcome that management and staff are now engaging on these and other issues at the Workplace Relations Commission. I intend to monitor closely the progress of discussions, but Deputies will appreciate that this dispute has to be resolved through direct engagement between the parties. It is my sincere hope that there will be no further recourse to industrial action while the conciliation process at the Workplace Relations Commission is under way. In particular, as I am sure Deputy Rabbitte agrees, I hope that children in Oberstown who are facing into exams can concentrate on these without other distractions.
An adult prison and a children detention school are based on different foundations. In Oberstown, there is an emphasis on training in behaviour management programmes that de-escalate and, where possible, avoid crises involving the behaviour of children. I condemn any and all incidents resulting in assault and injury to staff. There is no acceptable level of violent behaviour in a children detention school. Children are assessed daily for all forms of risk, and policies and procedures are continually reviewed with the aim of ensuring safe and secure custody for children and the safety of staff. Unfortunately, the risk of injury cannot be excluded completely given the nature of a children detention school. A specific employee assistance programme is in place to assist members of staff on foot of any such incident where required. Staff are fully supported where incidents have to be investigated by the Garda authorities.
The original physical design of the new units was developed through a series of consultative meetings with both staff and management in the children detention school. The consensus design recommendations were taken on board. Work is ongoing to address lessons learned from the operation of the new facilities over the first 12 to 15 months of their use. I assure the House that health and safety issues are a top priority for the campus, and further works are planned with the assistance of the Office of Public Works to enhance physical and building security.
I am describing the scale of the reform programme that is under way in Oberstown. There is a need for time, a supportive policy climate, an adequate level of resources and continued staff and management engagement to bed down the reforms and to ensure the new Oberstown campus operates successfully into the future. A positive work climate for staff on the Oberstown campus in the future is an absolute necessity. I am committed to this and to a future for children in custody that is modern and that serves children and society well.