Detention of children at St Pat’s to end

The long-criticised practice of detaining children at St Patrick’s Institution will end within two years, beginning with 16-year-olds who will no longer be kept there from May 1.

Frances Fitzgerald, the children’s minister, said capital funding of €50m would be available to provide new facilities over the next two years at Oberstown children’s detention campus to accommodate all children detained by the courts.

She said that from May 1, all newly remanded or sentenced 16-year-olds would be detained at Oberstown.