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Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 17 Jun 2015

Vol. 883 No. 1

Children (Amendment) Bill 2015 [Seanad]: Second Stage

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I am very pleased to have this opportunity to introduce the Children (Amendment) Bill 2015 to the House and I look forward to engaging in a constructive debate as it proceeds through the various Stages. The provisions in this Bill, which is proposed to amend the existing Children Act 2001, relate to the relatively small number of children who are in trouble with the law and are sent by the courts to the children detention schools.

The Bill will facilitate greater efficiencies in the children detention schools by enabling the amalgamation of the schools capitalising on existing reforms; providing a system of remission in children detention schools; introducing equality of treatment between children and adults; and delivering on a key programme for Government commitment, that is, to end the practice of sending children to St. Patrick's Institution.

On 1 January 2012, responsibility for remand places in children detention schools under section 88 of the Children Act 2001 and responsibility for children detention schools under Part 10 of the Act were transferred from the Minister for Justice and Equality to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. Responsibilities for other Parts of the Children Act remain with the Minister for Justice and Equality.

There are currently three children detention schools in the State, namely, Trinity House, Oberstown Girls School and Oberstown Boys School, all of which are located on the same campus at Oberstown near Lusk in County Dublin. Oberstown Girls School currently accommodates girls aged under 18 years who are remanded in custody or subject to a detention order. Trinity House and Oberstown Boys School currently accommodate boys under 18 who are ordered by the courts to be remanded in custody and boys aged 16 or under who are subject to a children detention order arising from the criminal justice process.

Children detention schools provide residential facilities for children who are subject to a children detention order following conviction or who are remanded in custody to a remand centre situated in a children detention school arising from criminal charges. The objectives of the children detention schools are to provide for the care and educational needs of the children and to address offending behaviour in order to prepare them for their return to the community in due course.

A number of positive steps have been taken to date to meet the programme for Government commitment. Responsibility for 16 year old boys was assigned to the Oberstown campus in 2012. Funding approval of €56 million was confirmed for the Oberstown capital development project in 2012. The remit of the Ombudsman for Children was extended to include children detained in adult prison facilities in 2012. A first recruitment process for care staff to work in Oberstown was completed in 2014, and further recruitment steps are ongoing. I recently authorised the transfer of responsibility for 17 year old males newly remanded in custody to Oberstown from 30 March 2015.

The Bill seeks to achieve a number of objectives. Significant initiatives and reforms have taken place in recent years on the Oberstown campus with a view to providing for the more efficient use of resources, including the centralisation of services, common policies across the three schools and more efficient use of accommodation. This is complemented by major capital development at the Oberstown campus to redevelop and expand facilities.

The Bill complements reforms achieved to date by providing a statutory basis for the amalgamation of the three children detention schools. The Bill provides for a number of amendments to delete all references on the Irish Statute Book to the possibility of detaining children in adult facilities, in line with the programme for Government commitment to end the practice of sending children to St. Patrick's Institution. Since 30 March 2015, 17 year old males who are remanded in custody are remanded to a remand centre situated in a children detention school. On commencement of the relevant provisions of this legislation, 17 year old males on whom a detention order is imposed will be detained in a children detention school.

Under section 155 of the Children Act 2001, children serving a period of detention who are convicted on indictment can remain in a children detention school for an additional six months beyond their 18th birthday where they satisfy certain conditions. Currently, the Children Act does not address the position of children who are convicted of summary offences and are still the subject of a detention order when they reach the age of 18. The Bill provides for clarification of the treatment of all children in such cases.

The Bill provides for a regime for such children that reflects the current provision for those relating to children convicted on indictment, that is, an option for the director to keep the child in the children detention school for six months beyond the 18th birthday where certain conditions are met. These conditions are where the person is engaged in a course of education or training in the children detention school, or where there is less than six months of the sentence of detention remaining to be served on the person's 18th birthday. Where these conditions are not met, the director shall request the transfer of the person to prison or a place of detention.

Consideration has been given to the principle of equality of treatment between children in children detention schools and adults in the adult prison system. This arose as a significant issue in the context of legal proceedings in the High Court in December 2013 in the case S. B. v. the Minister for Justice and Equality. In this case the High Court ruled that there was an entitlement to remission of detention in the children detention schools on the same basis as applies in the adult prison system. Therefore, the Bill makes provision for remission in children detention schools incorporating a new disciplinary process and an appeal process where the sanction imposed is forfeiture of remission.

The Bill provides for the introduction of a system of remission where a child, while detained in the children detention school, engages in good conduct. Remission will be introduced by way of regulations made by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs under section 221 of the Children Act. In particular, the regulations will provide for the same rate of remission of detention as that in place for adults, that is, one quarter and in some cases not exceeding one third of the sentence of detention concerned.

The Bill provides for an amendment to section 42 of the Criminal Justice Act 1999 to facilitate the arrest by the Garda of a child already on a detention order or on remand in a remand centre situated in a children detention school for questioning in regard to an offence or offences other than those for which he or she is in detention or on remand. The Bill augments existing provisions in this area in relation to adults. The Bill includes a number of other amendments, including one that creates an offence of supplying a mobile phone to a child in detention, and a number of consequential amendments relating to the ceasing of the detention of children in the adult system.

I now turn to the provisions of the Bill. In Part 1 of the Bill, sections 1 to 3, inclusive, provide for the Short Title, collective citation, construction, commencement and definitions of the Bill, as well as for the repeal of certain provisions of the Children Act 2001 that provide for the remand in custody or detention of males in St. Patrick's Institution. Part 2 of the Bill provides for matters relating to closure and amalgamation of children detention schools, clarification of matters relating to children turning 18 in detention and a new system of discipline and remission. I will outline the provisions of Part 2 more specifically. Section 4 provides for the amendment of terms referred to in section 3 of the Children Act. Section 5 provides for an amendment to section 88 of the Children Act relating to remand centres to enable the Minister to designate all of a children detention school as a remand centre. The amendment will enable the Minister to designate part or all of a children detention school as a remand centre. Section 6 inserts new sections 88A and 88B to enable the transfer of children remanded in custody between remand centres and to apply the disciplinary regime for children subject to a detention order to remand children. Section 7 provides for the deletion of the reference to "an order under section 151(1)" in section 98 of the Children Act as no such order is referred to in section 155(1). Section 8 substitutes a new section 149 incorporating some provisions of the existing section 155 to clarify the period of detention that may be imposed by a court on a child. Section 9 provides for an amendment to section 151 of the Children Act to refer to the granting of remission which is being introduced in children detention schools by the Bill.

Section 10 substitutes a new section 155 to provide for the treatment of persons who attain 18 years of age during their detention and who are still subject to a children detention order.

Debate adjourned.
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