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Legislative Programme.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 30 September 2004

Thursday, 30 September 2004

Ceisteanna (211)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Ceist:

212 Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the status of implementation of the Children Act 2001; and the provisions pending and the time frame by which he plans to complete the implementation of each of these provisions. [23122/04]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

The Children Act 2001 is a very complex and comprehensive piece of legislation and, for those reasons, provisions under the Act are being implemented on a phased basis, as was envisaged at the time of enactment.

Responsibility for implementing the Children Act 2001 lies with three Departments, namely, the Departments of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and Education and Science in respect of juvenile offending, and Health and Children in respect of children who are non-offending but out of control. The National Children's Office is co-ordinating the cross-departmental aspects of the implementation of the Act. Significant progress has been made to date.

Three main areas of the Act for which I have responsibility remain to be brought into operation. These concern the age of criminal responsibility, community-based options, and the provision of children detention centres for 16 and 17 year old offenders.

One of the primary aims of the Children Act is to expand the options a court will have at its disposal when deciding on how to deal with a young offender. The community-based options provided for in the Act will allow effect to be given to the principle that detention for young offenders will be a last resort. Thus, the Act generally envisages committals to custody of young offenders being availed of only in situations where other alternative diversions and community-based options have been resorted to and have failed.

The successful implementation of the community based options in the Act will require a very significant input from the Probation and Welfare Service. Notwithstanding the public service recruitment embargo, I secured 30 additional staff specifically for the Probation and Welfare Service to implement those provisions of the Act relevant to the Service. The Probation and Welfare Service, as part of its planning for implementation of the Children Act 2001, engaged trainers from the Department of Child, Youth and Family, New Zealand for the intensive training of all professional staff as facilitators for family conferences to be convened and managed in accordance with the requirements of the Act as well as providing day seminars for all probation and welfare officers. The service will provide ongoing training through its staff development unit as required.

The family conferencing provisions of the Act were placed on a statutory basis on 29 July. The family conference is convened by the Probation and Welfare Service and the convening of the conference is directed by the court where it considers that the preparation of an action plan would be desirable in an individual case. Other provisions of the act relevant to the Probation and Welfare Service will be introduced on a phased basis as resources allow and the timing of implementation will be contingent on the amount of resources secured for this process through the Estimates allocations for 2005.

Under the Children Act, I, as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform will be obliged to provide separate detention facilities for 16 and 17 year old males and females who are committed to custody by the courts either on remand or under sentence. The provision of appropriate custodial facilities is a priority for the Irish Prison Service. The primary objective of these detention centres will be to provide a secure but supportive environment in which young offenders can develop the personal and social skills necessary to avoid future offending.

In line with this, a new facility for male juveniles in this age group will open at St. Patrick's Institution in the near future. This unit, which was designed by a multi-disciplinary team, will include a custom-designed facility for the delivery of education, recreation, medical and therapeutic services. The longer-term provision of a dedicated facility on a greenfield site for 110 juveniles — 90 male and 20 female — is now being pursued in consultation with the director general of the Irish Prison Service and the Office of Public Works.

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