Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 4 Apr 2000

Vol. 517 No. 3

Written Answers. - Child Care Services.

Paul McGrath

Question:

224 Mr. McGrath asked the Minister for Health and Children the centres available in each health board area to accommodate children under 16 years who are deemed to be delinquent or out of control; the number of places in each such centre; the occupancy rate at these centres; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that some such disturbed persons have had criminal charges brought against them so that they could be sentenced to detention centres; if he is concerned that such persons will be classified as criminal because suitable facilities were not available at health board level; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10003/00]

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Ms Hanafin)

The health boards currently provide 63 places for non-offenidng children in need of special care or protection.

Placements in each health board area as follows. Eastern Regional Health Authority, 12; Midland Health Board, 3; Mid-Western Health Board, 4; North-Eastern Health Board, 6; North-Western Health Board, 3; South-Eastern Health Board, 17; Southern Health Board, 18; Western Health Board, 0.

These include places in special care and high support units, as well as special high support packages developed for individual children. The occupancy rate varies in accordance with the requirements that health boards have to respond to.

Plans are under way to develop additional places nationally as follows: – In the Eastern Regional Health Authority Area, the construction of a special care unit providing 24 places at Ballydowd, Lucan commenced in January 1999. It is anticipated that this unit will open in the summer of this year. The development of a 24 bed high support unit which will be built at Portrance is at tender stage. It is anticipated that this unit will be ready by autumn 2001. The Midland Health Board, the North-Eastern Health Board, the North-Western Health Board and the Western Health Board are co-operating to provide 12 high support places on a single campus. a site has been acquired and a project manager and a project group has been put in place to develop the proposal.

Places being developed in the other boards are as follows: 20 high support places – four of which are already in place on an interim basis – and a special care facility with five places for adolescent boys in the Mid-Western Health Board; three high support places in the South-Eastern Health Board; five high support places for boys and an additional two places in a secure facility for girls in the Southern Health Board. These places are due to become available during 2000 and 2001. My Department has conveyed approval to proceed with all of these developments and has provided the required funding.

The senior managers resource group comprising representatives from each of the health boards and my Department was established in October 1998. The Government recognises that the Children Act, 1908, which governs the current juvenile justice system needs to be reformed.

The Deputy will be aware that the Children Bill, 1999, is currently before the House. This Bill, when enacted, will repeal the Children Act, 1908, in its entirety and will set out a blueprint for a new juvenile justice system. It will,inter alia, empower the health boards to apply to the courts for special care orders to provide special care or protection for a non-offending child whose behaviour poses a real and substantial risk to his or her health, safety, development and welfare. It will also raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12. The Bill also establishes for the first time on a statutory basis the family welfare conference which will enable health boards to intervene with other agencies at an early stage in relation to children who need special care and protection or where a child is before a court charged with an offence and the court deems it appropriate to adjourn proceedings and refer the child to the health board.

While it would not necessarily be appropriate in the case of a child in need of special care or protection who acts in contravention of the law to ignore the criminal implications of such behaviour, these and the other measures set out in the Children Bill, 1999, when enacted, will allow courts a wide range of options when dealing with such children. It should also be noted that section 77 of the Bill establishes the principle that criminal proceedings shall not be used solely to provide any assistance or services needed to care for or protect a child.