Detention centre Oberstown faces €17m in claims
THE troubled young person’s detention centre where the State’s youngest convicted murderers are being held is currently the subject of nearly 60 claims which could cost the State up to €17m, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
It is just the latest revelation about the north Co. Dublin detention centre, where Ana Kriegel’s murderers – and the
17- year-old who slit a woman’s throat in Dún Laoghaire, nearly killing her – are to be housed.
Boy A was sentenced to life, with a review period after 12 years for the May 2018 murder of 14-year-old Ana in an abandoned house in Lucan, Co. Dublin.
His co-accused, known as Boy B, was sentenced to 15 years for Ana’s murder, with a review after eight years.
While it does not regard itself as a prison, the centre has many characteristics similar to adult prisons, and it has been plagued with difficulties since it opened three years ago at a cost of €56m.
The annual cost of keeping one offender in Oberstown is around €383,574, or €1,050 a day, greater than high-security adult prisons where some of the country’s most notorious criminals are held.
The staff to inmate ratio is five to every one.
The MoS previously revealed that 106 staff have been injured in the course of their duties at Oberstown over the past three years.
Heightened tensions have also seen a high turnover of staff. Some 26 residential social care workers and administrative staff resigned from their posts at Oberstown since 2016.
In addition, gardaí have been called to deal with incidents at Oberstown on 65 occasions since 2016.
Figures obtained by the MoS show that last year 44 staff were on sick leave – that’s 17% of the 260-strong workforce.
This year, the State has spent nearly €1m on installing steel doors throughout the juvenile detention centre.
A spokesman for Oberstown told the MoS: ‘Oberstown cannot comment on the nature of individual claims.’
Fianna Fáil TD Seán Fleming, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, told the Irish Mail on Sunday that he has requested a breakdown of the specific number of claims taken by both staff and children detained at the centre.
Mr Fleming said that he is ‘surprised’ by the number of claims, amounting to a total of €16.68m, which would average in the region of €288,000 each, and has requested further details.
The Minister for Children Katherine Zappone also confirmed in the Dáil this week that 34 financial settlements in respect of Oberstown have been reached in the period 2015-2019, when millions of euro worth of damage was caused to the property due to riots.