James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise a serious issue which has been escalating over the past several months at Oberstown facility for young offenders. This is an excellent new-build, costing more than €50 million, which is very much focused on the rehabilitation and re-education of young offenders to give them a second chance, which all Members will agree they are fully entitled to and we would like them to have.

There have been, however, an ever-increasing number of serious incidents at the facility with staff injuries. Local residents have become extremely concerned about these incidents. There are many old people in the vicinity living on their own, as well as many parents of young children. They are becoming increasingly concerned due to several absconsions and a fire on the roof causing considerable damage to the wonderful facility. There was an incident where a staff member was locked in a room and held to ransom. The Garda eventually had to go to the facility to release the staff member. The newspapers report that this day last week over €1 million worth of damage was caused to the facility.

Over the past several months, clearly whatever protocols are in place at this facility are not working. Staff feel threatened. I know many of them myself as I worked there as a general practitioner. Many of the staff have worked there for years but do not want to go back. Having been the Minister involved with the facility’s development, I know it was difficult to get staff to work there. Accordingly, it makes it all the more important that they should be retained and feel protected at work.

The facility’s board has apologised for certain failures around texting alerts, etc., when there have been break-outs and will rectify these, as well as ordering a review of existing protocols. However, this needs to be done urgently as local people are concerned. I have written to the Minister responsible on this issue, seeking a meeting with local residents to re-assure them. All I have received so far is an acknowledgement. People in the area support the facility and have shown good will to it. They are deeply worried about the escalating incidents over the past two months. Given this and the money invested in the facility, will the Leader invite the Minister to attend the House to explain what has gone wrong at the facility and why there have been a significant number of incidents there?

I believe the protocols in place do not allow staff to deal with young offenders. These are young men, 16 and 17, some of whom are aggressive and are as large as many of us, if not larger. The staff need to be able to deal with these problems when they pass a certain point without having to resort to the Garda, which has a significant amount of other work to do and can well do without being continually called to the facility. If the protocols were somewhat different, as they have been in the past, these situations would not get to the point they have.