asked the Minister for Education if he will outline the progress of plans for the provision of suitable accommodation in the Dublin area for the detention of juvenile male offenders so that it will no longer be necessary to remove such offenders to a centre 100 miles from their homes.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Detention of Juvenile Delinquents.
31.
The proposed new detention centre in Finglas will cater for 85 juvenile male offenders. Plans for the centre have been completed and tenders received and it is expected that the work of construction will start in the very near future.
Is the Minister in a position to say where the detention centre will be sited?
In Finglas.
Is this in keeping with the Government's stated policy of decentralisation?
Is this to take the place of St. Patrick's? Is this to accommodate the inmates of St. Patrick's, the institution at present adjacent to Mountjoy?
It is a preventive centre for Dublin and as well as replacing the existing place of detention, Marlborough House, Glasnevin, to which boys are committed for a maximum period of a month, it would make available corrective treatment for boys who would normally be sent to other institutions.
It does not take the place of St. Patrick's?
No. It had a very unhappy history.
You are telling me. It took ten years to get it out of somebody I had been trying to get it out of.
32.
asked the Minister for Education the present position in relation to suitable accommodation for the detention of juvenile female offenders.
There are two reformatory schools for young female offenders, one in Dublin and the other in Limerick. In addition, a number of industrial schools in various parts of the country are certified places of detention for juvenile female offenders. The accommodation in the establishments referred to is adequate.