Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and the Bill. In dealing with any aspect of children getting into difficulty, one of the concerns I have is whether, before they get into the court system, we have adequate procedures and supports in place for those coming to the notice of gardaí. It is an area in which I have worked in Cork for over 20 years, having been involved in facilities where a large number of the people would have dropped out of school at a very early age and would have come to the notice of gardaí. As a result of having a very good and comprehensive community garda scheme and garda liaison officers, those people have ended up coming into the training centres. In fact, when we reviewed how it worked out after they had left the centres and gone through a training facility, something like 70% of them were in full-time employment.

I am currently involved in another project where we have had quite a lot of difficulty getting adequate funding. We are catering for over 45 people who have dropped out of school, some of them as young as ten years old, but we are getting inadequate funding and the project is being run very much on a voluntary basis, with over 60 volunteers. In looking at the costs of any detention centre, my point is that if we were investing money at an earlier stage, we might have a smaller number ending up in the detention centres. The Bill implements a reform to which the Government made a commitment in the programme for Government. Having three detention schools managed on an integrated basis is a welcome change. The Bill also makes provision for dealing with remission of sentences for children in detention schools. In the case of Byrne v. the Director of Oberstown School, the High Court ruled that children in detention were entitled to remission. This welcome decision has been incorporated in the Bill, which also sets out disciplinary procedures to be followed in children detention schools. The legislation also makes adequate provision for children who have been held as a result of a court order and reach the age of 18 years while in detention.

As the Minister noted, the Bill amends the Children Act 2001, the Criminal Justice Administration Act 1914, the Criminal Justice Act 1960, the Criminal Justice Act 1999 and the Prevention of Crime Act 1908. It is strange that the last of these Acts has been in place for almost 100 years. I welcome the decision to amend these Acts following thorough research and a comprehensive review by the Department.

I understand Oberstown boys' and girls' schools and the Cuan Beag unit at Trinity House will be replaced by one unit to house children aged up to 17 years. The Minister discussed the various sections of the Bill. Section 10 gives the director of a children detention school discretion to keep a child in detention on reaching the age of 18 years. This provision currently applies only to children convicted on indictment. Section 13 deals with the amalgamation of the children detention schools, which is welcome. Section 14 provides that accounts and a final report be done when schools are amalgamated. The Bill also reforms a number of other areas.

It is important to ensure that detention centres also provide facilities to train young people in order that they do not re-engage in crime when they leave detention. Statistics on reoffending rates among persons aged between 18 and 26 years who leave prison were published recently. We must ensure every possible effort is made to help children detained in these centres to develop skills and acquire education in order that they can find employment or continue their education when they leave detention. For far too long, children who have been detained have graduated to the adult prison system. Anyone visiting a District Court will find that many of those who came before the children's courts three or four years previously have since progressed into serious crime and the adult prison system. We must work harder on this issue because we have not done enough to address it over the years.

The Children Act provides that it shall be the principal object of children detention schools to provide appropriate educational and training programmes and facilities for children referred to them by a court and, by having regard to their health, safety, welfare and interests, including their physical, psychological and emotional well-being; providing proper care, guidance and supervision for them; preserving and developing satisfactory relationships between them and their families; exercising proper moral and disciplinary influences on them; and recognising the personal, cultural and linguistic identity of each of them to promote their re-integration into society and prepare them to take their place in the community as persons who observe the law and are capable of making a positive and productive contribution to society. This should be the principal objective of children detention centres. I hope the legislation will result in major changes in the long-term outcomes for children who have been detained in these centres.

As I stated, in the 1990s, I was involved in a facility where most detainees secured full-time employment subsequent to their release. I hope at some stage we will be able to achieve a similar outcome for those who go through detention schools. The Bill has my full support.