James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the Senators for their contributions. I do not intend to answer all the questions raised today. That will be better done during the course of the Committee Stage debate when we can examine in detail the various issues raised. I certainly would have great sympathy with the view that we need to examine and discuss with the Department of Justice and Equality the issue of 18 to 24 year olds. These are very young people who still have their lives ahead of them and who still have great potential for change. All Senators are agreed that the child care and welfare approach of our detention schools is the way to go. We should move forward with a child care model which is very different from the adult prison model. The Bill will provide the necessary amendments to the legislation to achieve the commitment in the programme for Government on ending the practice of detaining children. Senators are agreed on the value of those amendments.

I must take issue with Senator Leyden's criticism of the Government for the time it has taken us to publish this Bill and put in place this facility. He was a member of a Government that was in power for 14 years and which, despite having any amount of cash resources at its disposal, chose to ignore this issue completely.