Minister hopes for resolution of Oberstown detention centre dispute

The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs has expressed hope that an agreement will be reached in the dispute over safety measures at the Oberstown children’s detention centre.

Katherine Zappone also said she was committed to ensuring the centre operates as an “effective model” of care, support and encouragement for young people who come from very difficult backgrounds.

Ms Zappone said she was determined “we never again” have a situation where children are in adult prisons.

She made the remarks at another event in Dublin as talks were getting under way at the Workplace Relations Commission between Oberstown management and officials of Impact and Siptu, which represent residential care workers at the centre.

Staff who are members of the two unions were due to take part in a work stoppage yesterday, the first of three scheduled for this month, but these have been deferred to facilitate the talks. The discussions continued all day and the sides are now awaiting a report from the WRC before deciding how to progress the matter.

Major fire

Safety is a core issue in the talks as some 100 incidents, almost half of which were described as critical, were recorded at Oberstown last year.

During a stoppage by staff last month, children were confined to their bedrooms but some escaped and a major fire broke out.

The roof of a refurbished unit in the older part of the centre was destroyed as a result of the fire and damage was also done to the windows and doors of two adjoining units.

The cost of rectifying the damage has yet to be quantified with estimates ranging from hundreds of thousands of euro to €2 million. The centre is licensed to hold 46 children and, according to sources, can still accommodate that number despite the damage.

Moving forward

A spokesman for the Minister said there was no basis for media reports suggesting some children would have to be moved to units in the UK as a result of last month’s incident.

Ms Zappone is due to meet Ursula Kilkelly, chairwoman of the Oberstown board of management, and other officers of the board today to discuss how best to move forward.

The relationship model of care remains crucial to the centre's operation, Ms Kilkelly told The Irish Times yesterday.

An “enormous” change is taking place at Oberstown and that is challenging for any organisation, she said. The intention was to deliver a “world class facility”, everything would be done to ensure the centre was safe for staff and young people, the resources are there, staffing was not an issue and she was optimistic the vision could be achieved.

Some €50 million has been allocated to the Oberstown project, intended to cater for young people sentenced or remanded by the courts, several of whom were previously sent to the now closed St Patrick’s Institution for Young Offenders.