David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 15:

In page 7, after line 34, to insert the following:

"(a) by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (2):"(2A) Remanded children shall be kept separate from sentenced children where it is in the best interests of the child.",".

I welcome the Minister back to the House. I fully support the Bill. Any amendments we have tabled are in the spirit of strengthening the Bill. I commend the Minister on bringing it forward.

This amendment adds a paragraph "(2A) Remanded children shall be kept separate from sentenced children where it is in the best interests of the child." In broad terms, I welcome the Bill which will provide for the amalgamation of the three children detention centres into one legal entity and underpin the legal authority of the campus manager. However, it is also vital to reiterate the principle that detention, including detention on remand, is a last resort for children and must never be used for care or welfare purposes. This is a clear requirement of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and is reflected in the Children Act 2001, as amended. Furthermore, while the children detention schools are annually inspected by HIQA, the standards and criteria for children detention schools were issued in 2004, adopted in 2008 and have not been revised since. The Irish Penal Reform Trust has repeatedly recommended that these standards be reviewed to ensure that they adhere to current best practice.

Section 88(8) of the Children Act 2001, as amended by the Criminal Justice Act 2006, provides that remanded children shall be kept separate from sentenced children only as far as practicable and where it is in the interests of the child. Article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights requires that juveniles be separated from adults and remand prisoners from convicted prisoners. Notably, the UN Human Rights Committee, in its concluding observations in July 2014, stated that despite the current reservation to the Article that is in place, Ireland should "establish a concrete timeframe for the achievement of complete separation of remand and sentenced prisoners, juvenile and adult prisoners and detained immigrants and sentenced prisoners. At the very least section 88(8) should be amended to provide that "Remanded children shall be kept separate from sentenced children where it is in the best interests of the child", which is what the amendment states.I hope the Minister will be in a position to accept the amendment.