Brendan Ryan (Dublin North, Labour)
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131. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs his plans for recruitment in the Oberstown Juvenile Detention Centre in north County Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22785/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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A campaign is ongoing to recruit over 60 new care staff for the operation of the expanded Oberstown campus and 38 staff have been recruited to date. The campaigns have consisted of 3 phases to recruit the necessary number of Residential Social Care Workers to operate the new facilities. One of these phases has been completed and 2 of these are currently ongoing. A further campaign to recruit Night Supervisor Officers was successfully completed in 2014 as was an internal recruitment campaign to promote existing staff to Unit Managers and a Grade VII. A Clinical Nurse has also been recruited in the past 6 months. A further internal campaign open to Night Service Officers to be promoted to Residential Care Workers is also ongoing. A campaign to recruit additional General Operatives/Domestic staff, a HR Manager and Unit Managers is also ongoing.

Any future recruitment to the Oberstown Campus will depend on the yield from the current ongoing campaigns. The transfer of full responsibility for 17 year old males to the Oberstown campus, including 17 year old boys who are serving a sentence, is dependent on the completion of the new facilities, the enactment of the Children (Amendment) Bill 2015 and recruitment of the requisite numbers of staff to operate the facility.