Update: Rehabilitative Support Services for Juvenile Offenders 2nd July 2014

2nd July 2014 - Bernard Durkan TD

QUESTION NO: 656

DÁIL QUESTION addressed to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (Mr. Flanagan)

by Deputy Bernard J. Durkan

for WRITTEN ANSWER on 01/07/2014

* To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the total number of custodial/supportive places available for juvenile offenders; the extent to which rehabilitative support services are available for 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 on the project commenced on site in September 2013 and the first new residential units, which will prioritise the provision of residential places for 17 year old boys ordered to be detained, will be delivered in fourth quarter of 2014. The project will also deliver associated education, recreation, visiting, medical and other ancillary facilities. It is planned that the project will be fully completed during 2015.

The services currently being delivered in the children detention schools and the enhanced services which will be supported by the new facilities being developed 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 education services to the young people in detention including up to State examination level.

Bernard Durkan TD

Kildare North

Bernard J Durkan is the Fine Gael spokesperson on Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform. Originally from Killasser, Co Mayo,…

Update: Rehabilitative Support Services for Juvenile Offenders 2nd July 2014

Bernard Durkan TD

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