Written answers

Thursday, 7 December 2006

Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform

Juvenile Offenders

7:00 pm

Photo of Ivor CallelyIvor Callely (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 78: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the progress to provide a secure detention centre to specifically cater for the needs of juvenile offenders; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42099/06]

Photo of Michael McDowellMichael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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Following a review of the youth justice system the Government agreed, in December 2005, to a number of reforms including amendments to the Children Act 2001 (since provided under the Criminal Justice Act, 2006) and the establishment of the Irish Youth Justice Service. The issue of the accommodation of juvenile offenders in secure detention centres comes within the scope of these reforms.

Currently, 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 old young people. In addition, each of the prisons in the State can accommodate persons aged 17 years and over and the Courts currently have discretion to commit 17 year old young people 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. In the case of young female offenders a very small number of 17 year olds, one or two on average, are detained in the Dóchas Centre.

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, male and female, under the age of 18 years. Interim arrangements are provided for in the legislation in the case of males aged 16 and 17.

The construction of children detention school places which can accommodate 16 and 17 year olds 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 those under the age of 18 years from the older age groups. 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. An expert group on children's detention has also been formed to plan for the development of detention places. The transfer of the schools which are currently within the remit of the Department of Education and Science to the aegis of the Irish Youth Justice Service will take place on the 1st of March, 2007.

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