Keeping track of numbers in the Dublin Children’s Court can be challenging. The 15-year-old boy faced 18 charges related to six incidents, including drug dealing and criminal damage, breached bail conditions 51 times since January and was subject of 14 bench warrants for his arrest over the past 12 months for failing to attend court.
In his earlier teens, the boy was charged with offences ranging from stealing ice-cream, washing-up liquid and Lego valued €250 to more serious offences of dealing drugs, including cannabis and cocaine.
He sat silently in court as District Court president Paul Kelly examined the latest papers in the boy’s large file. His background is complex. His mother and another sibling are in emergency homeless accommodation; she struggles to cope and Tusla has some involvement with the family, the court heard.
On foot of the latest bench warrant, gardaí arrested and brought him before a District Court judge last month. After they opposed bail, he was remanded to Oberstown, the national facility for care and education of children under 18 referred by the courts on detention or remand pending trial.
RM Block
Most of the State’s 72 District Court judges deal with child offenders. A problem they encounter when dealing with those repeatedly breaching bail conditions is that a bed in Oberstown may not be available, resulting in the child being again released on bail.
Oberstown’s director has no legal power to admit more than 40 boys and six girls, that being the maximum occupancy set by the Minister for Children.
Last June, Koulla Yiasouma chair of Oberstown’s board of management, said the facility was operating at or near full capacity for boys. In an interview with RTÉ, she said that day, June 22nd, marked the first time it had a bed available in about six months.
Oberstown, since the pandemic, has had fewer staff than it needs and could do with another 20-30 residential care staff, she added.
Custody, she stressed, should be “a last resort” and judges should have the full remit of services available to them to support young people. Before any decision was taken to either extend Oberstown’s numbers or build a similar facility, there should be “the right community supports which go some of the way to stopping young people offending and also keeps the community safe”, she said.
[ How should Ireland treat children when it comes to criminal sentencing?Opens in new window ]
In Judge Kelly’s experience, Oberstown “is full most of the time” where boys are concerned. Its capacity fluctuates as children are released for reasons including that they could be on remand and then get bail or their sentence has been completed.
When it comes to very serious, “extremely rare” cases, such as those involving children convicted of crimes at the Central Criminal Court, the courts will try to ensure any bed available is held for that child, he says.
In all other cases, getting a bed is about “pure luck of the draw”, depending when a court decision was made and communication was made to Oberstown.
Judge Kelly sits in the Children’s Court in Smithfield three days weekly, with his colleague Judge Brendan Toale sitting the other two days. “We are pretty resigned to having this question and answer most days. There isn’t a plan B – there is either a bed or there isn’t.”
The bed problem happens more frequently with remand cases involving young people on numerous charges who, while their cases work their way through the system, get bail, usually with tailor-made conditions such as curfews and attending courses and counselling to try to ensure they avoid getting into further trouble.
Environmental factors, intimidation, bullying, grooming by older people who use children to transport and deal drugs all contribute to children getting involved in crime, he said. A small number engage in “very significant, serious offending” and are brought before the courts on multiple occasions over bail breaches.
[ Capacity at Oberstown Child Detention Campus to be slightly extendedOpens in new window ]
When Oberstown is the preferred option but is not available, it is frustrating for judges but even more frustrating for gardaí, says Judge Kelly. “There may be four or five guards giving evidence over different bail breaches. It must be soul destroying for them, especially if the young people are destructive and serial offenders.”
As he drives home from court after reluctantly releasing an offender on bail because there was no place in Oberstown, he worries a “terrible accident” may result. He is aware of posts with “#oberstown” on social media by a small group of child offenders, dubbed the “Lucky Dip” gang, showing them driving the wrong way on motorways.
All of this risks bringing the system into disrepute, he says.
Oberstown, when it first opened, had a design capacity for about 90 beds and the present 46 beds is an “arbitrary” figure. He would like to see all stakeholders “start with a blank sheet” and work out how many beds are necessary in the context of Ireland’s increased population and the circumstances the courts and services are dealing with.
His own view is that Oberstown seems to need more beds and there is an additional need for a children’s remand centre.
Portlaoise District Court Judge Andrew Cody was so concerned about the Oberstown bed situation that he accused the Government in May of failing to protect people from “feral” gangs of criminal juveniles committing crimes “without any fear of recrimination”.
He spoke out when no beds were available to detain two Laois teenagers “terrorising” parts of Dublin as well as towns in Kildare and Laois. Aged 17 and 15, the two were in a stolen car stopped by a Garda stinger device on the M7 motorway and the judge heard evidence of bail breaches by both.
Judge Cody ordered that the two, facing multiple charges including unlawful taking of cars, dangerous driving, criminal damage and theft, be detained in a Garda cell overnight. They were then released on conditional bail pending beds becoming available in Oberstown.
[ Three care workers injured in latest incident at OberstownOpens in new window ]
His comments were raised in the Oireachtas by Sinn Féin Senator Marie McCormack who urged a “full Government-led response” to organised youth crime, saying she was being contacted by “frightened and frustrated residents “who feel like prisoners in their own homes, living in fear of reckless behaviour and repeat offending”.
The Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, told her he was “extremely concerned” about the issue. He has delegated responsibility for youth crime to Minister of State Niall Collins, and has discussed increasing capacity at Oberstown with the Minister for Children, Norma Foley.
While he believes more spaces in Oberstown will be necessary for reasons including population increase, there is a responsibility on all those involved to try to divert children away from crime, the Minister said.
Judge Kelly agrees the starting point of the legal regime for children is that detention is “a last resort”. “We shouldn’t be locking children up unless we really have do. We should have tried everything else,” he says.
That “last resort” approach was evident when The Irish Times, over a number of days, observed cases in the Children’s Court in Smithfield dealt with by Judge Kelly and Judge Toale.
Just one of about 30 cases involved an application to detain a boy in Oberstown, the 15-year-old already referred to. His solicitor said the boy, who had been detained in Oberstown days earlier, was “open to engaging with probation services”.
Having been told the boy’s mother would not engage with probation services before this, Judge Kelly said the boy has “a lot of work to do to get the probation services back on side”.
His mother said she cannot drive and engaging with probation was difficult when the family lived for a time outside Dublin but they are now in emergency accommodation in the city. Tusla was involved for child welfare reasons, the judge heard.
“My life is not stable at the moment. They say they will work with me when I get my forever home,” the mother said.
Judge Kelly, who was told a youth diversion project has worked with the boy over the past year, refused bail, directed the boy remain in Oberstown, and put the matter back for a week when the boy faced sentence on matters to which he was pleading guilty.
Some cases had more positive outcomes, including a now 18-year-old male who grew up in care and was involved in drug-related crime over several years. Over the past year and a half, he has positively engaged with probation services, is in accommodation provided by a homeless charity and is working with a company which has offered him an apprenticeship.
Congratulating the man on his achievements over the past 18 months, Judge Kelly applied the probation act to all matters and wished him well.
In a seperate case, a garda told Judge Kelly that during his 15 years working in the Clondalkin area he had “not seen many success stories” but that of another 18-year-old male was one of them.
When still a minor, the boy was last year charged with a minor drug offence and driving a scrambler bike with no licence or insurance. Two other males, also on scrambler bikes, who were with him, were masked but he was not.
The defendant, who denied both charges, has 23 previous convictions for minor offences. He has engaged well with probation services, is in his second year as a trade apprentice and “has turned his life around”, his solicitor said.
Judge Kelly imposed a €50 fine on the driving charge, and said he would take the drug offence into account on foot of the evidence and the garda’s “very generous” comments. “I hope he’s right and you take advantage of the chance you have been given,” he told the teenager.
