Update: Juvenile Offender Rehabilitation – Children and Youth Affairs 25th September, 2014

 
  To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the extent to which adequate and appropriate accommodation is available to facilitate the needs and requirements of juvenile offenders with particular reference to adequate segregation to ensure that the maximum opportunities for rehabilitation/education are available to such offenders; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

                                                                         Bernard J. Durkan T.D.

 
REPLY.
The 3 children detention schools, all located at Oberstown, Lusk, Co. Dublin, currently provide a total of 46 detention places for young people ordered to be remanded or committed by the courts.  These comprise 6 places for girls up to the age of 18 on admission and 40 places for boys up to the age of 17 on admission.  Boys aged 17 on being ordered to be detained are currently accommodated by the Irish Prison Service.  This practice will cease, meeting the commitment in the Programme for Government to end the practice of detaining children in adult prison facilities, when new children detention facilities currently being constructed on the Oberstown campus become available before the end of this year.  Construction commenced on site on the Oberstown campus in September 2013 and the new facilities will increase the capacity on the campus to provide sufficient accommodation for all children under 18 years of age ordered to be detained by the courts.  In the interim, pending introduction of the expanded facilities, the existing facilities at Oberstown are being used to meet demand from the Courts.  There is ongoing contact with the Courts, Probation and An Garda Síochána regarding the availability of places in the children detention schools.

The services currently being delivered in the children detention schools and the enhanced services which will be supported by the new facilities being developed (including new education and recreation facilities as well as dedicated visiting and medical facilities) focus on education and rehabilitation of the young people detained in order to minimise re-offending and to support their early re-integration into the community.   Each young person is assessed on admission to determine his/her need for specialist therapeutic interventions and to develop an individualised management plan which might include addressing offending behaviour, family therapy and other relevant programmes.  The Dublin and Dun Laoghaire Education and Training Board provide delivery of age and ability appropriate education services to the young people in detention including up to State examination level.