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STAFF AT OBERSTOWN Children Detention Campus will not strike on Monday, they have announced.
The campus had made headlines this week after a fire and violence that broke out at the facility on Monday.
The Garda Emergency Response Unit (ERU) was called to the scene to quell the trouble, with a staff member also injured in the disturbance. A Garda investigation is also ongoing.
Six units of Dublin Fire Brigade battled a blaze on the roof of the centre.
The disturbance came about after 150 staff picketed for eight hours outside the centre in protest against what they say are health and safety concerns at the facility.
Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone tonight welcomed the postponement of Monday’s action, to allow for talks on the issue.
“Talks are due to resume between the representatives of staff unions and management which will take place under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission.
“The postponement of the industrial action will mean that the daily routine of the campus will continue next week with children attending at school as normal.”
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This is a joke. Im all for social workers working in Oberstown but this place should be in the care of the Irish Prison Service. The staff in Oberstown are not in the least bit ready to handle any riot that takes place on the campus and somebody could be killed.
The prison service use to deal with 16/17 year olds and were deemed not caring enough and to strict so now the government and HSE can deal with it as they say you reap what you sow
Unfair comments, the Dept, and Irish Youth Justice Service plus Centre Mgt were all warned well in advance of the potential of what is going on now. Some empathy for the staff whom have been hung out to dry by uncaring employer. It’s all about damage limitation and optics.
I heard that during the exhaustive consultative process that informed the ethos, policy and mission statement of the new Oberstown community for vulnerable children it was decided that it would have sent the wrong signal to the delinquent community if the views and opinions of front line workers had been sought….thus a number of study and focus groups were established amongst the delinquent community to foster partnership between them and the DOJ going forward……when asked if the new Oberstown collective should be manned and womanned by prison guards the response was a resounding NO….amongst the reasons given were 1) PO’s like discipline 2) PO’s demand respect 3) PO’s are authoritarian 4) PO’s maintain order and 5) PO’s always know what we are up to. When asked who they wanted to person the new community the majority said “social care workers”, and in the true spirit of the new partnership thus it came to pass.
Ministers only listen to “Edumactated peoples”. People (Prison Staff) that have the most experience dealing with these violent young men (that is what they are) who were called “Sadistic Brutes”, “Neanderthal Knuckle Draggers” etc by the Social Warriors and Know All Academics who wanted to test their theories in dealing with this form of criminal were ignored. And the events in Oberstown since they received their new “Residents” have shown that in theory v practical experience, the latter will win every time. Theory looks great on paper but in the real world it can turn out to be an utter disaster.
Prediction – these talks will fail.
Does Mr Zappone actually write his own speeches/utterances/propaganda/waffle/rhetoric ?
Katherine is a weird name for a man
My prediction……… PAINNNNN!
They should give this rat children the death penalty
This whole situation is not the Oberstown residents fault, it’s the fault of successive governments in not providing enough supports and facilities for these poor young people.
We stand shoulder to shoulder with the service users of Oberstown in their struggle against the oppressive regime in place in this cruel institution
Yes
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