A district judge who complained that reports from the Oberstown youth detention and education centre in Dublin are meaningless and unhelpful to the court was told yesterday that the emphasis was on providing therapy to the youths, but that his concern about reports would be examined.

A row over the chronic shortage of detention centre spaces for young offenders has intensified after a judge demanded immediate action from Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald to deal with the crisis.

A bed has been found at Oberstown detention school in North Dublin for a teenager at the centre of a row over the availability of custodial places for juvenile offenders.

IT IS a “national disgrace” that some children are being sent overseas on care placements, a conference was told yesterday.