Jimmy Deenihan
Question:64 Mr. Deenihan asked the Minister for Justice if his Department will provide additional detention places for young offenders; and if he has any plans to provide regional centres for this category of offenders.
Written Answers. - Detention Places for Young Offenders.
My Department cater for the detention of young male offenders aged 16 years and over and young female offenders aged 17 years and over. Offenders under that age cannot be sent to prisons or places of detention operated by my Department except in the special circumstances provided for in sections 97 and 102 of the Children Act, 1908.
Male offenders aged 16 to 21 can be committed by the courts to St. Patrick's Institution. In addition male offenders aged 17 years and over can be sent by the courts to the committal prisons i.e. Mountjoy, Cork, Limerick and Portlaoise. They may, of course, be transferred subsequently to places of detention or open centres set up under and Prisons Act, 1970, i.e. Wheatfield, Fort Mitchel, Loughan House and Shanganagh Castle. Mountjoy and Limerick Prisons cater for female offenders aged 17 years and over.
I am satisfied that the range and level of accommodation available for young offenders for which my Department is responsible are adequate and there are no plans at present for the provision of additional accommodation for them.
The courts may commit young offenders between the ages of 12 and 16 to special schools. The provision of special school accommodation for such offenders is a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Education.