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STAFF AT THE Oberstown detention centre in north Dublin have been informed that one of the child detainees has a €25,000 contract on his life, TheJournal.ie has learned.
The child, who was sent to the centre due to his violent behaviour, has been involved with an organised crime gang and it is understood that staff at the centre now have to make additional security measures to make sure he is protected.
It is understood that staff have concerns that they would not be able to protect the child in the case that an attack would happen. The child has to attend court frequently and no additional safety measures have been made to his transport routine as a result of the threat to his life.
A number of makeshift shivs have been found on the campus in the last six weeks. While there is no evidence to suggest that they were to be used to attack the teenager, staff cannot discount that the young man was being targeted.
Sources have told TheJournal.ie that the highly-volatile detainee is aware that there is a threat to his life but said he would be considered “relatively safe” on the campus as the number of young people who share services such as education or sport is limited and those who seemingly get on with each other are often mixed together in a bid to limit the possibility of any outbursts of violence.
Staff at the centre have been urging management install safeguards.
A review of the centre, ordered by Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone, found that a serious lack of resources meant that recommendations identified in the review could not be implemented.
It read: “The limited available resources – both human and financial – have also been identified as a barrier to the implementation of some recommendations. This is evident in a number of ways. First, Oberstown resources are finite and can only be stretched so far given that it is the priority of the campus to provide 24/7 safe and secure care to young people referred by the courts on a day-to-day basis.
“In this way, the balance must be carefully struck between ensuring that Oberstown provides the best possible care to young people today, while continuing to advance the development of the Campus for the future.
“Limited resourcing is relevant therefore to the limits on the capacity of staff – to undertake training and to bed newly acquired learning into practice – and the extent to which financial resources could and should be made available to advance the review recommendations, especially bearing in mind any risks to the standard of care currently provided.
“It is important to note that some recommendations may be very costly to implement, while others might not require financial resources at all but will simply take time to take effect.”
The Department of Children and Youth Affairs said that has not published the most recent report into the operation of Oberstown, which was received in April 2018.
“The Minister [for Children] wished to be assured that fair procedures had been followed in relation to all persons referred to in the report before it can be published,” a spokesperson said. “Fair procedures means that each person must be afforded an opportunity to respond in a substantive manner, rather than simply by means of a factual accuracy check.”
“The Board has not been in a position to provide such assurances to her to date and on this basis the Minister does not proposed to publish the report.”
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Why weren’t the fire service called at the same time as the guards as they have the proper equipment to enter a building and rescue people. Just a thought.
How do you know they weren’t?
Stephen. Perhaps the Gardai were closer which is why they got there first and decided to help rather than wait for the fire engines to arrive. Not really fair to assume that the services let these poor people down.
Mallow is a part time station.
Wasn’t there a fire there a few weeks ago too?
RTE is reporting that it was a man and woman that died. Sad news nonetheless.
It seems to be fairly common around the country for gardai to get called to fires before the fire brigade. For whatever reason that is, maybe cost cutting!!
That’s a stupid comment. Gardai get called at the same time as the fire services. Difference is Gardai have cars not big slow trucks full of water. Gardai are already dressed and ready to go where as the fire services have to suit up first.
There are far more Gardai. Therefore the odds of them being closer are higher. It’s simple numbers.
It’s not a stupid comment, im aware of a number if incidents in my locality where people have rang and asked for the fire brigade and the gardai were sent first to check that the fire brigade were necessary. One of such incidents being a serious rta which was witnessed by a retired firefighter and called in by same, minutes wasted by call vetting and sending the gardai to a scene to go nothing but . . . . . Ring for fire and ambulance.
Martin I’m in the retained fire service, our local gardai have been called to fire incidents, like gorse fires car fires domestic fires etc. they then call us only if they can’t extinguish fire!
There is no such thing as call vetting in Munster as far as fire calls are concerned I should know I take the calls. Each area in Munster has a pre determined attendance set down by the chief fire officer of that local authority and depending on the type of incident the attendance is increased by the call taker. So there is no wait and see approach each call is dealt with and resources mobilised usually within 60 seconds.
And in certain areas that pre determined attendance was that oil spills were not up be dealt with by fire brigade and RTAs only to be attended if a person or persons are trapped in a vehicle.
As I said I can only speak for the Munster area all RTA’s are responded to when the fire service are requested by the Gardai ambulance or members of the public if there are persons reported or not if we don’t get the call obviously we can’t respond
That is vetting but before it gets to you..a caller wants help and you look at a list to see if you can give her help!!!how many times to do have to ring a senior officer to get permission to let the fire crew out!!!and by the way they make most of their decisions when not even at the scene..how can you risk assess from a bed not to mention that most senior fire officers have never been firefighters …the system in this country lets senior management tell firefighters what to do on the side of the road when they have actually never done the job themselves….it’s like the captain of a ship never been a sailor !!!!
I agree with your point about senior officers but the fact is that if it’s a life at risk call or has the potential to become a life at risk the fire brigade is mobilised regardless of senior officer standing orders there are certain situations in certain areas that require senior officer consultation before mobilisation but never when there is a danger to life. Just like firefighters emergency control operators are in a ranked based structure so have to follow the orders of superiors whether they agree with them or not
Your correct Adam…people in this country still call the gardai when they have a fire ….
Just push the button Trevor …we are all numbers at the end of the day….
Gardai are not already dressed to enter a fire
I never said they were. But we are already dressed to do our job.
Assuming you are a Member of AGS?
It is not the job of Gardai to enter a fire
RIP to the ones who lost their lives, very sad.
The gaurds were driving around that area all night and the garda station is close to were it happened they were at them appartments earler that night aswell for another incident. So if they were on the scene first thats why
Very sad thats the second fire in the same area in the last 2 weeks. About 2 hrs before that that i seen an ambulances and gaurds there aswell. R.i.p
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