Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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607. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if he will provide, in tabular form, the number of children held on remand since January 2013, on a monthly basis; the average length of time these children are held on remand; the percentage of children held on remand who are eventually sentenced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21389/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Section 88 of the Children Act 2001 allows that a court may remand a child in custody who is charged with or found guilty of an offence , who is being sent forward for trial or in respect of whom the court has postponed a decision . The judiciary are independent in the performance of their functions and the discretion as to whether or not to remand a child in custody is solely for the judge to decide .

The number of individual children remanded in custody by courts to the Children Detention Schools at Oberstown , Lusk , County Dublin in each month from January 2013 to April 2015 is set out in the table below. With effect from 30th March 2015 the Children Detention Schools began to accommodate 17 year old boys on remand . These figures for 2013 and 2014 and further information below is based on a general analysis of information available to my Department .

An overall total of 96 children were remanded in custody by the courts to the Children Detention Schools in 2013 ( some of these children were remanded in more than one month ). Of these, 26 children subsequently received a detention order , representing 27% of the total.

A total of 110 children were remanded in custody to the Children Detention Schools in2014. Of these, 49 children subsequently received a detention order , representing 45% of the total.