David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 5:

In page 24, between lines 33 and 34, to insert the following:“(2A) Where an inquiry is held under subsection (1) the child shall be provided with an opportunity to be heard and to respond to any allegation of disciplinary breach orally or in writing.”.

We dealt with this on Committee Stage and made reference to it on Second Stage but we feel it is important to table this amendment again. It reads:

In page 24, between lines 33 and 34, to insert the following:"(2A) Where an inquiry is held under subsection (1) the child shall be provided with an opportunity to be heard and to respond to any allegation of disciplinary breach orally or in writing.".

It is vital to ensure that the procedures that children encounter in detention settings are accessible to them in light of their age, vulnerability and often literacy difficulties. While sections 17 and 18 make provision for the director of Oberstown Campus to hold an inquiry into an alleged breach of discipline and to inform the child of the breach and the time and date of that inquiry, it makes no express provision for the right of the child to be heard in such a situation but leaves it to ministerial regulations to prescribe the procedure.

Given that forfeiture of up to 14 days remission, which is an effective loss of liberty, is potentially at stake, we submit that the underpinning of the convention on the rights of the child to participate and to be heard would require that the child must be given an opportunity to be heard and to respond to any such allegations in the first instance. While section 17 provides that the procedure relating to an inquiry may be prescribed by the Minister, we submit that the opportunity to be heard is of such importance both in terms of the child's rights and due process that it should be included in the Children (Amendment) Bill 2015. We submit that where the sanction imposed is one of loss of remission, the reasons for the imposition of such a sanction should be recorded in writing and communicated to the child in language which is accessible to them.