Under the provisions of the Children Act 2001, which is now in the course of phased implementation by the relevant Departments, as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform I will be obliged to provide separate, dedicated secure detention centres for the accommodation of 16 and 17 year old offenders. These secure detention centres, called children detention centres, will operate under their own unique regime which will cater specifically for the needs of juvenile offenders. The provision of these facilities has been identified as a priority by the Irish Prison Service.
Pursuant to a Government decision of April 2002, it was the intention of the service to provide 20 spaces at St. Patrick's Institution for the custody and education of 14 and 15 year old boys. In pursuance of this Government decision, the Prison Service had proceeded with the adaptation of one residential wing of St. Patrick's Institution as well as the construction alongside that wing of a dedicated education unit, a recreation-sports hall, counselling rooms, as well as other ancillary services, thereby creating a self-contained facility which could operate independently from the existing institution.
Since then, the accommodation difficulties in the special schools system which gave rise to the April 2002 Government decision have eased and the Department of Education and Science has indicated that it now has sufficient spaces in its special schools for 14 to 15 year olds. The Government, therefore, decided that the Irish Prison Service should move directly to the use of the new facility at St. Patrick's Institution for the benefit of 16 and 17 year old boys in custody, as part of the preparation for the implementation of the relevant provisions of Children Act 2001. The director general of the prison service expects that the transfer to the new facility of up to 44 male offenders aged 16 and 17 years should commence in the coming weeks.
