Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 7 Nov 2000

Vol. 525 No. 2

Written Answers. - Detention Centres.

Paul McGrath

Question:

926 Mr. McGrath asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will give details for each of the detention centres for which he is responsible in respect of: (i) the number of detainees; (ii) the number of staff and (iii) the annual overall cost per detainee; and the rate of reoffending for inmates of each of those centres. [24843/00]

Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods):

The statistical information requested by the Deputy is detailed in the following table:

Name of Centre	Number detained on3/11/00	Staff Numbers	1999Unit Costs
Trinity House School	21	93	£97,792.72
Oberstown Boys Centre	17	73	£91,701.77
Oberstown Girls Centre	12	38	£74,356.73
Finglas Children Centre	30	124	£46,561.20
St. Joseph's Industrial School, Clonmel	33	94	£38,425.87

The figure for staff numbers includes job-sharers and part time staff. The unit cost is based on the full operating costs of the schools, both pay and non-pay expenditure, and includes the salary costs of the teaching staff.

A significant proportion of those placed in young offender centres would already have a track record of offending. While the centres do not maintain specific tracking systems on the rate of re-offending, a previous analysis indicated that approximately 25% of those admitted to reformatory schools had already been in industrial schools. A survey carried out some years ago indicated that up to 75% of the young people who had been in Trinity House School had subsequently re-offended. This finding is broadly in line with the experience of recidivism rates in other countries.