Two residential units for young offenders have closed and another has failed to open because of a staffing shortage. Almost a third of childcare staff have left to take up better-paid positions elsewhere and 24 out of 114 residential places are closed as a result.
Impact, the union representing staff at the units, said yesterday the staffing crisis "could lead to a collapse of the system this summer".
Union representative Mr Robbie Ryan said units in three out of five centres run by the Department of Education are already closed.
These are the Oberstown Girls' Centre and a unit in the Child and Adolescent Centre in Finglas. A third unit, at Oberstown Boys' Centre, is ready to open but is unable to because of staffing problems.
Only two remaining units provide full residential care facilities for young offenders and other minors referred by the courts, one in Dublin's Trinity House and another at St Joseph's in Clonmel. Mr Ryan said the five centres, which have a combined staff of about 160, have experienced turnover of around 30 per cent this year.
There is always difficulty recruiting staff for these units but the situation was aggravated by an agreement between IMPACT and the Department of Health and Children last April. It secured increases of almost 45 per cent for childcare workers in the health services. Historically childcare staff working for the Department were better paid but under new scales the starting rate for a residential childcare worker in the health services is £5,000 more than in a Department of Education centre.
"It is always difficult to attract care staff to the centres because the work is low paid, difficult, and sometimes dangerous, but the pressure is even greater now," Mr Ryan said.
"The Minister for Health came to a realisation there was a crisis in childcare and moved to address it. We don't really care how it's done but someone in education has to come forward with the wit, the power and the ability to make a deal."
A Department spokesman said it was aware of the staffing difficulties and the effects on its facilities. Discussions with IMPACT and SIPTU, the other union involved, were "ongoing".