Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 161: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the steps he has taken to date to end the practice of detaining children in adult jails in breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; the action which has been taken to address reports of mistreatment of children in custody; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30704/06]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 191: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the action he intends to take to end the situation whereby children and teenagers are placed in adult prisons; if he will confirm that more than 170 such persons were placed in adult prisons in 2005; his views on whether this practice is in breach of a number of international treaties to which Ireland is a party; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30611/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 161 and 191 together.

The Irish Prison Service has responsibility for 16 and 17 year old children who have been ordered to be detained by the Courts, the majority of these are male and detained in St. Patrick's Institution which accommodates 16 to 21 year olds. In addition, each of the prisons in the State can accommodate persons aged 17 years and over and the Courts have discretion to commit 17 year olds directly to prison. This can often happen at the request of the person's legal team in order for them to be located nearer to their family home.

I am advised by the Director General of the Irish Prison Service that their records indicate that there was a total of 276 persons aged under the age of 18 years committed to their custody during 2005, of which 214, or 78%, were committed to St Patrick's Institution. I understand that on average last year there were, at any one time, approximately 60 male children and 1 female child detained in facilities under the remit of the Irish Prison Service and that on 22 September 2006 there were 50 male children being detained in St. Patrick's Institution and 10 male and 2 female children being detained in adult prisons.

Following a review of the youth justice system the Government agreed, in December 2005, a number of reforms including amendments to the Children Act 2001 and the establishment of the Irish Youth Justice Service. The Irish Youth Justice Service has been established as an executive office of my Department and is to, inter alia, manage detention services for young people under the age of 18 years. The legislative, operational and administrative changes will see the transfer of responsibility for the detention of young offenders under 18 years of age, ordered to be detained by the Courts, from the Department of Education and Science and the Irish Prison Service to the Irish Youth Justice Service in my Department. The net effect of these reforms to the detention services will be to end the practice of using adult prison places for the detention of children and to extend the children detention school model to all offenders under the age of 18 years.

The development and construction of children detention school places which can accommodate 16 and 17 year old children with the requisite facilities to provide care and education will take some time to complete. In the interim, work is well underway in St. Patrick's Institution for the separation of the majority of children under the age of 18 years from the older age groups. Planning for commencement of the Children Act 2001, as amended, is being carried out through the close co-operation of the Irish Youth Justice Service in my Department and officials in the Departments of Education and Science, and Health and Children. In addition the Government has agreed to the recruitment of a National Manager for Detention School Services for the Irish Youth Justice Service and I understand that this appointment will be made shortly. A cross- departmental group has been formed to plan for the development of detention places needed to implement the changes under the Children Act, as amended. The transfer of the schools which are currently within the remit of the Department of Education and Science to the remit of the Irish Youth Justice Service will take place in 2007.

I am not aware of any mistreatment of 16 and 17 year old children in custody in the prison system or of any reports of such mistreatment. I can say that any such reports would be treated with the utmost seriousness. If the Deputy has details of any alleged mistreatment, he should pass them to my Office and I will undertake to have them investigated. Prisoners may make a complaint about treatment in custody through a number of channels, including local prison management, the Prison Visiting Committee, the Inspector of Prisons, the Minister, and he or she also has access to the Courts. They may also complain to the European Court of Human Rights and to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture. In the cases where allegations of assault are made, the Garda Síochána are called to investigate.

At a recent examination by the United Nations on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, my colleague, Mr. Brian Lenihan T.D., Minister for Children, made clear the results to date of our joint initiative to reform the youth justice sector, including measures to deal with the detention of young people in prisons. Minister Lenihan also underlined this Government's determination to implement the changes I have described here.