Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 November 2013
37. Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will provide an update on the transition from St. Patrick's Institution to the Oberstown campus, including management and governance structures, staffing, training and rostering arrangements at Oberstown; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47826/13]
View answerA main contractor and a number of sub-contractors have now been appointed to the Oberstown development project and construction of the new facilities started on site on 23 September 2013. On 14 October 2013 I officially launched the construction project with the event taking place on the campus in Oberstown.
The timeline for the project will see the first three new residential units available in the third quarter of 2014, which will be used to facilitate the transfer of responsibility for 17 year old boys from adult prison facilities (currently St. Patrick's Institution) to the Oberstown campus and will deliver on the Government's commitment to end the practice of detaining children in St. Patrick's Institution. An additional three residential units, to be delivered in 2015, will be used to replace existing accommodation on the Oberstown campus which has reached the end of its useful life. The development will also provide associated education, recreation, security and other ancillary facilities and will result in all detention services for children being delivered in a single location, maximising the scope for ensuring best practice standards using the children detention school model and for operational efficiency. The project is due to be fully complete by the third quarter of 2015.
In additional to the capital project, my department and I are overseeing a further programme and reforms aimed at enhancing the effective management and capacity of services on the Oberstown campus. A recruitment process has recently been carried out for the appointment of a Campus Manager for the Oberstown site, who will report to the Board of Management. The Campus Manager will be appointed shortly and this person will be responsible for driving the reforms that are currently taking place in Oberstown. I see this appointment as a crucial element of the reform of the children detention service, which will complement the development of new services on the campus for all children under 18 years of age. In addition, I will shortly be presenting a set of amendments of the Children Act 2001 to the Oireachtas which will provide a mechanism for the merging of the three existing Children Detention Schools into a single legal entity. These governance reforms will complement the on-going work over recent years to develop integrated care policies and shared services across the Oberstown campus. I wish to further advise that a care staff recruitment programme has been sanctioned by Government and will shortly be commenced in conjunction with the Public Appointments Service, with the aim of deploying the new staff in Oberstown for orientation and training on a staged basis from early 2014.
In order to ensure a safe and stable transition to the new children detention school campus during 2014, a comprehensive business planning process has recently commenced for the delivery of services for all children under 18 in Oberstown. This will include appropriate input from the Irish Youth Justice Service which is based in my Department, the Irish Prison Service and other agencies including the Probation Service, the Courts Service, an Garda Síochána and the HSE Child and Family Support Services, which will shortly become the Child and Family Agency.
In line with an agreement made at the Labour Relations Commission earlier this year, agreement has been reached with staff representatives on the appointment of a third party arbitrator to oversee a joint staff/management review of the operation of the campus staffing roster in Oberstown which was implemented in February 2013. This review commenced last month and it is ongoing. It is my intention that the review will be completed as soon as possible.
