Katherine Zappone appoints new board of management at Oberstown

Minister for Children Katherine Zappone has announced the appointment of a new board of management and governance reforms in Oberstown detention centre for young offenders in Co Dublin.

Professor Ursula Kilkelly has been appointed as Chairperson of the new Oberstown board.

Mr Jim Gibson, Ms Fionnuala Anderson, Ms Sinead O’Herlihy, Mr Fiachra Barrett , Mr Pat Rooney , Ms Elizabeth Howard, Mr Dan Kelleher , Mr Charles Irwin, Mr Diego Gallagher, Ms Emer Woodfull, Ms Fiona Murphy and Mr Michael Farrell are the other board members.

Professor Ursula Kilkelly, Diego Gallagher and Dan Kelleher also served on the last Oberstown board and are being reappointed

Ms Zappone said the new Oberstown board “will have an important role in ensuring the campus continues to provide safe and secure custody for children in detention and in addition, the safest possible working environment for staff.”

Lat week, staff at the Oberstown detention centre voted in favour of industrial action over concerns for their safety.

Impact official Tom Hoare said management at Oberstown detention centre needed to think about their staff and introduce health and safety measures to protect them.

Ms Zappone said the new board will oversee the transfer of responsibility for 17- year-old boys who are serving a sentence to Oberstown.

“This will take place on the earliest date possible in 2016, with the addition of a sufficient number of new care staff under a recruitment programme which is ongoing at present,” she said.

Ms Zappone said the appointment of a new Oberstown board is also a requirement for the amalgamation of the three child detention schools in Oberstown into a single legal entity.

“The amalgamation of the child detention schools will complement the initiatives taken in recent years to create a single campus ethos in Oberstown, to improve governance and best use of resources and to support the development and expansion of the facilities there,” she said.

The minister has signed the legal orders giving effect to the amalgamation from June 1st 2016.

From this date, there will be just one child detention school in operation in Oberstown, known as the Oberstown Children Detention Campus.