Seventeen-year-old inmates at St Patrick’s Institute for Young Offenders could be moved out of the facility in the near future, Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald said yesterday.

The latest child law rapporteur report comes at a time when children’s issues are finally forcing their way up the Government’s agenda, writes Noel Baker

A senior member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has questioned whether Irish laws on smacking mean parents can be good role models for their children.

THE minister for children has pledged to overhaul elements of the care system after a series of criticisms from children living within it.

THE Ombudsman for Children yesterday asked for the Irish Prison Service to “work with her” as a report into conditions at the country’s biggest facility for young offenders unearthed a series of complaints about life there.

MOUNTJOY Prison has “more drugs than sweets in the tuck shop”, according to the latest damning report by the jail’s visiting committee.

AN investigation is to be launched into the death of a man at the Central Mental Hospital in Dublin over the weekend.

HAVING a job on release from prison would be the most likely factor to prevent reoffending, according to young offenders.