How unrest at Oberstown detention centre came to a head

Oberstown, the State’s only detention centre for children, near Lusk, north Co Dublin, has been under intense pressure for almost two years. The past fortnight’s events – the crash on the M9 motorway at Moone in Co Kildare that left four people seriously injured and five joyriding teenagers dead, and the industrial unrest among workers at the campus – have shone a spotlight on a centre already under strain and its role in the rehabilitation of the country’s criminal youth.Documents released to The Irish Times under Freedom of Information legislation show relentless demands from the Department of Children to accommodate more boys.“We are in an emergency situation,” said Lara Hynes, a senior official in the child policy and Tusla governance section of the department in a meeting at Oberstown this time last year. READ MORE“Minister [for Children Norma Foley] in frequent communication with Minister [for Justice Jim] O’Callaghan re capacity of Oberstown, also recent correspondence from AG [the Attorney General] on same issue,” the minutes of the meeting note. At least 50 requests for places for boys in Oberstown have been refused since March last year, records show. “This creates risks that have implications for the effective operation of the youth justice system as a whole,” Hynes wrote in an email to Oberstown director Damien Hernon last year.The main trade union at Oberstown, Fórsa, was planning to escalate industrial action as it demanded staffing numbers be increased significantly to ensure safety of workers and children at the facility, but talks at the Workplace Relations Commission on Thursday night led to a breakthrough and a path away from further action.Oberstown Children Detention Campus has capacity for 46 children up to the age of 17, who are convicted or on remand for serious crimes. Until earlier this year that comprised 40 boys and six girls.Despite management warnings that any increase in boys would damage staff morale and capacity to provide therapeutic interventions, the number of boys Oberstown was certified to accommodate increased to 42 in March, with capacity for girls cut to four. Given that there are rarely more than two girls detained, the increase in boys represented an increase in overall numbers. Records show within days of the increase, management reported that boys in one unit were “on restricted movement”. “Boys could not leave residential unit but could leave their bedrooms. This is highly problematic,” said the minutes of a meeting dated April 2nd.At the following meeting, management reported: “The increase has not been positive for the campus. There has been an increase in anxiety among young people. Young people may act out due to stress and anxiety. There has been an increase in bad/disruptive behaviour since [the] increase.”News that capacity for boys was due to further increase to 44 next month, and capacity for girls cut to two, was the final straw for workers at the campus. It is a “key reason” for industrial action started by Fórsa this month.The most recent of a series of weekly stoppages, on Tuesday, led to 40 staff protesting at the entrance to the campus. They said the impact of already inadequate staffing levels, physically and mentally, had been exacerbated by increased numbers. Signs pleading with Minister for Children Norma Foley to 'Protect your staff' outside Oberstown. Photograph: Sam Boal/Collins Photos Most held placards with slogans such as “Oberstown in Crisis” and “Staff Crisis = Care Crisis”, with the Fórsa logo printed on them. Another featured a photograph of Norma Foley and the words: “Protect your staff.”Fórsa said on Friday that an agreement had been reached just after midnight on Thursday to resolve the dispute over staffing levels and recommended that staff accept the proposals in a ballot.[ Agreement is reached in Oberstown staffing dispute after WRC talksOpens in new window ]Before the deal, staff had been planning to escalate the industrial action to a 48-hour stoppage from Monday. That would have meant further restrictions on young people just as they are due to begin a new year at the campus school.“The impact on young people would be significant,” said a spokeswoman for Oberstown prior to the dispute being resolved.“They would remain in their rooms from Sunday evening until Wednesday morning.”Pressure on Oberstown to take more boys is ultimately coming from the courts, the Department of Justice and the Attorney General’s office, records show. Since March 2025, at least 50 requests for places for boys convicted of, or on remand for, serious crimes have been “unmet”, say heavily redacted meeting minutes. Oberstown Children Detention Campus in north Co Dublin. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire In many records the number of “unmet requests” is blacked out. The actual figure is likely to be much higher.Minutes from an April 2025 meeting between Oberstown and department officials record: “[Oberstown] could not take 33 boys in March due to full capacity.”In June there was a discussion about “how best to free up some beds quickly as there is currently immediate demand to accept two young people on remand”.Minutes for November 2025 record: “10 refusals in Oct due to full occupancy.”Figures provided by the department show there were nine requests for beds directly from the courts this year. None of these boys had been sentenced to Oberstown; rather inquiries were made whether a place was available for a boy due for sentencing. Andy Walsh, a Dublin solicitor working in the Children’s Court, says it is a “frequent occurrence” that he will be anticipating a three- or six-month sentence for a boy only to learn the judge has just been told no bed is available. “The judge has to go off and design a different sentence,” he says.As recently as June, he says, two juveniles could not be accommodated and were released back into their communities, under supervision.Referring to another example, he says: “We had a situation towards the end of last year where there was no space for a juvenile [convicted of a serious crime]. He went off and was committing further offences.“Sometimes the young person waiting for sentence will tell me even before the judge knows, ‘Sure there’s no space in Oberstown’. They know they’ll be back to their community after court.”Last Christmas a group of joyriders took a car to Oberstown and posed outside for photographs, which they then shared on social media. Earlier this year, for the first time, a judge “invoked section 144 of the Children Act 2001”, which empowers a judge to make a detention order and defer it. “This has never happened before,” stated minutes of a meeting on April 17th between department officials and Oberstown management. “A waiting list will be created for Oberstown if judges continue to invoke this section of legislation.”Outside Oberstown, youth crime was witnessed to a tragic degree earlier this month.[ M9 crash: Wrong-way collision survivor ‘cannot believe it has happened again’Opens in new window ]Two of the five youths killed when the BMW in which they were travelling in the wrong direction on the M9 were well-known to the Garda in connection with multiple joyriding, dangerous-driving and car-theft incidents.Kamil Putskowski, a 17-year-old from Limerick, was on bail at the time of his death and had been ordered not to leave Limerick. Jack Kennedy, also 17, from Athy, Co Kildare, was well-known to the Garda as a member of the so-called Lucky Dip gang.[ Who were the M9 crash teenagers?Opens in new window ]Sisters Alma and Niamh Kinsella, along with their younger sibling Ella Hendricken and seven-year-old nephew Yemi, were seriously injured when the car in which they were travelling in the correct direction collided head on with the BMW at about 3am on Sunday, August 16th. As those injured in the M9 crash continued their recovery this week, talks at the Workplace Relations Commission progressed, leading to resolution of the dispute at Oberstown, sparked by concerns about the facility’s capacity to accommodate more boys who are convicted of, or on remand for, serious crimes including joyriding. A spokesman for Oberstown management says there has been a “net increase of nine frontline staff over the [past year], with six whole-time equivalent frontline vacancies remaining. “We are actively recruiting to fill these posts and want to see those roles filled without delay and in any case before the end of the year,” he says.A department spokeswoman said total funding for Oberstown was €31.6 million this year in addition to €7 million capital funding.“Since the end of 2025 [Oberstown] has recruited 21 new staff members and had seven staff departures. “This brings the total number of staff ... to 259 whole-time equivalents. Oberstown is also continuing to recruit up to seven further posts before the year is out.”Staff will be keenly awaiting the arrival of these reinforcements.