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There have been a series of high profile incidents at Oberstown Children Detention Campus. Eamonn Farrell

Call for reports into Oberstown youth detention centre to be published

Last August saw a massive fire at the facility after young offenders climbed on the roof to protest.

SINN FÉIN SPOKESPERSON on Children & Youth Affairs Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire has called for all reports into the Oberstown children detention campus to be published following a series of disturbances at the facility.

Four independent reviews were commissioned by the Oberstown board of management into Ireland’s only youth detention centre.

The reports covered Operations; Security; Health & Safety; and Behavioural Management at the north county Dublin facility.

The Behavioural Management review will be published in full and the recommendations of the Operations review are also set be published.

However after contacting the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Katherine Zappone, Ó Laoghaire has said that he fears that the other reports may never see the light of day.

“From what I gather from the Minister’s reply, neither the Security review nor the Health & Safety review will be published, even in part, which raises questions as to why?

Yesterday, I received a reply from the Minister which I found to be wholly unsatisfactory. It was ambiguous at best in outlining which reports would and would not see full publication.

Disturbances

The call comes following a string of high profile episodes at Oberstown. Last August a major fire broke out at the centre after young offenders climbed onto the roof of the building during a protest.

In May, staff were threatened and assaulted before three youths escaped using an angle grinder to cut through the perimeter fence.

As recently as last week the director of the facility Pat Bergin confirmed two incidents involving inmates, one of which required garda intervention.

“Rebuild faith”

“It is imperative for all involved that these reports are published in full, allowing us to identify where weaknesses lie, and to ensure the necessary steps have and are being taken to address these issues,” Ó Laoghaire said.

The publications and transparent implementation can help rebuild faith in Oberstown.

“The Minister needs to outline, at a very minimum, what legal reasons she and the Board of Management have been given for non-publication,” Ó Laoghaire concluded.

Implementation group

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs has yet to respond to TheJournal.ie’s requests for comments.

Speaking in the Dáil in May, Minister Zappone said that an “implementation group” has been set up to consider the recommendations made in all of the reviews.

The group is tasked with analysing the recommendations of each of the reviews with a view to their implementation while taking account of resource and policy implications.

“The implementation group regularly reports on progress to the board of management and to my Department,” she concluded.

Read: After a fire, violence and a strike Oberstown ‘making real progress’>

Read: Oberstown youth who allegedly threw TV and hit staff member is charged over siege>

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4 Comments
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    Mute Yun Wyn
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    Jul 10th 2020, 1:20 PM

    Very true especially when they decide who and what to censor. Joe rogan has a podcast with Twitter exec and pushes them on the issue

    37
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    Mute Richard Russell
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    Jul 10th 2020, 4:32 PM

    The campaign has started to shut down free speech and citizen journalism We can have free speech as long as it is nuj free speech only the voice of the selected few will be heard

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    Mute Michael Patrick Newell
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    Jul 10th 2020, 3:24 PM

    And you really think our own government haven’t used misinformation or bots for their own use esp during elections…..i agree social media needs dealing with, but when you have countries where people have little faith or trust in their own governments, its hard then to trust them in turn to do what’s right when it comes to social media

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    Mute AOL
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    Jul 10th 2020, 7:06 PM

    Never mind social media. Not a true journalist left in any country. Every article is a copy and paste job. We should be holding all media to account

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    Mute Gary Sheahan
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    Jul 10th 2020, 3:52 PM

    Well, and I know this won’t be popular – but I feel well equipped to discern (most) of what goes online and practise a healthy level of cynicism and, on that basis, I say leave them at it. Take and keep the jobs they bring and generally promote ourselves as the safe and primary destination for FDI in the EU.

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    Mute Dáibh
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    Jul 10th 2020, 2:29 PM

    Misinformation is one of the biggest scourges in the world. Especially the last five years with Trump and Brexit. It needs to be dealt with it and the government should take the lead on that for the exact reasons laid out in this article.

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    Mute Bob Rock
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    Jul 10th 2020, 3:04 PM

    @Dáibh: Couldn’t agree more. It’s not been taken seriously enough by many governments around the world in my opinion. the only ones seemingly taking it seriously are countries like Russia and China and they’re using it with devastating results.

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    Mute The quite man
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    Jul 10th 2020, 5:57 PM

    @Bob Rock: yes we should start Defunding RTE the state broadcaster is a prime example of an institution which pushes a certain narrative. I can’t remember the last time the news, prime time or any radio interviewer actually pushed any minister or official for the truth. Now that the state has bailed out the broadcaster and Denis O Brian owns a large chunk of local radio stations I think it’s imperative that citizen journalists keep asking the important questions such as asking the new minister for children his stance on lowering the age of consent for children, or should under 16,s be allowed to remove parts of their bodies without parents knowing.

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    Mute The quite man
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    Jul 10th 2020, 6:03 PM
    1
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    Mute Tony Humphreys
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    Jul 10th 2020, 6:57 PM

    @Dáibh: I believe Brexit and Trump happened because of the media and social medias attempts to scilence views that do not followed a center left agenda. When views are scilenced and not listed too, or simply dismissed as an ist, the scilenced vote.

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    Mute The quite man
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    Jul 10th 2020, 7:14 PM

    @Tony Humphreys: it’s the tip toe of totalitarianism

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    Mute Mikhail Ramendik
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    Jul 10th 2020, 6:08 PM

    While a certain amount of regulation might be necessary, I think this article actually showcases the dangers of the idea – because it repeatedly mentions Libya and the author is Paul Tweed.

    Paul Tweed is known to dislike Libya’s pre-2011 government because of its links to the PIRA, one of the sides of the well-known civil conflict in Belfast where he is based. https://www.irishnews.com/news/2015/10/21/news/belfast-lawyer-urges-britain-to-back-ira-libya-victims-301570/

    For all I know, somehow he never seems to talk about the government behind the other, equally vicious side of that civil conflict.

    In 2011, the government of Libya was overthrown by unprovoked invasion of a coalition of Western countries. The result of this action was massive suffering in Libya, including outright slave markets on the streets.

    Thankfully, Ireland did not directly participate in that deplorable invasion.

    Libya is in the middle of a civil war now between the GNA and the LNA. Should Ireland break its neutrality now by telling social networks which side of that civil war should have a voice and which one should not?

    I would hazard a guess that Mr. Tweed supports the GNA. I might be wrong here. But in any event, judicial participation, by censorship, in Libya’s civil war is exactly what Ireland should NOT be doing.

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    Mute James Gorman
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    Jul 10th 2020, 6:30 PM

    We need to ban anon SM accounts

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    Mute David Van-Standen
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    Jul 10th 2020, 7:24 PM

    @James Gorman: in the context of individual users, that choose to not use their actual name on social media, there is zero real anonymity.

    The manipulation of public opinion or the dissemination of propaganda by private groups for profit, or government agencies to push an ideological or political agenda, is carried out not with anonymous users but non-existent ones, that are farmed on a massive scale using computer networks of virtual machines and or thousands of mobile phones on they use software to simultaneously publish, share or like whatever message the client wants spread in realtime.

    That said, the answer is not the type of blanket censorship that the author or others are suggesting, which it basically the same logic as cutting down forests to prevent the activities of arsonists.

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    Mute Tom Keenan
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    Jul 11th 2020, 8:06 PM

    The people who run the world are worried about ordinary people finding out about how things really are on the internet hence the calls for censorship. The internet must become like the mainstream media,keep people ignorant so they can be manipulated.

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