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STAFF WORKING AT Oberstown Children Detention Campus protested today outside the Department of Children over an ongoing resourcing and safe staffing dispute after talks with management broke down.

Members of the trade union Fórsa engaging in the protest are also involved in a 10-hour strike at the Oberstown campus and a picket outside the campus.

The industrial action is the third in a series of planned weekly strikes which began earlier this month following a ballot of Fórsa members backing industrial action.

Fórsa assistant general secretary Deirdre O’Connell said the staffing issue has been ongoing for around 10 years, but came to a head earlier this year when the Minister for Children Norma Foley said the centre’s capacity will be increasing.

Children under the age of 18 cannot be sent to prison; if a child is handed a period of detention by a court, the child is held in a detention school or a detention centre.

The minister changed the capacity arrangements in Oberstown earlier this year from 40 boys and six girls to 42 boys and four girls. Capacity for boys is to be increased to 44 boys during 2026. There are currently 39 boys and one girl in Oberstown.

Speaking to The Journal, O’Connell said staffing at Oberstown is not matching the increased capacity of the service.

“They are finding it quite difficult to attract staff, and when they attract staff, they’re finding it difficult to hold them,” she said.

“Realistically, in Oberstown you’re dealing with children with a very complex set of needs and you need a very bespoke type of worker and trained worker to be able to work with them, and we can’t separate the safety of the children and the safety of the staff in this conversation.”

Some Oberstown staff are fearful of disciplinary action if they speak with the media and The Journal is anonymising comments made by workers today.

One worker said the service needs to have “enough staff to keep everybody safe”, but said that at times one staff member may be left alone with eight residents in Oberstown.

“When you don’t have enough staff, you’re really stretched, but also it compromises safety for both the young people and the staff. The safety of the young people requires appropriate number of staff to keep the staff safe, but also to keep the young people safe. And a lot of times it’s stretched,” they said.

“Staff are fearful going into work,” another staff member said.

They said that risk assessments to decide staff to resident ratios have become “pointless tick-the-box exercises” as they are “completely undermined by management”.

“The service has increased for the young people, but the staffing is not reflecting that. They’re papering over the issues with excessive overtime, which obviously has an impact on staff with regards to burnout, and that in turn impacts young people,” they said.

“We are expected to deliver a service when we don’t have adequate staff.”

Another staff member said assaults against staff by residents happen frequently, as do assaults against residents by other residents.

They believe that many children and teenagers sent to Oberstown do not see the detainment as a significant negative consequence.

They said the government should review the outcomes of children sent to Oberstown to see how many later end up in prison for other crimes in later life, rather than moving away from crime.

The Department of Children said: “The safety and wellbeing of both staff and young people in Oberstown Children Detention Campus is of the utmost importance.”

“The Department of Children, Disability and Equality has provided €2.176 million in additional funding in Budget 2026 for Oberstown to increase staffing levels, including funding for 11 additional whole-time equivalent staff posts.

“Oberstown has been successful in recruiting the majority of those extra staff, despite tight labour market conditions.”

The Department said it is disappointed that an agreement has not yet been reached, and industrial action has continued.

“Fórsa is encouraged to pause its industrial action to create space for constructive engagement and to support efforts to restore the full delivery of services,” they said.

Oberstown said it “regrets that Fórsa has served notice of further work stoppages at the

campus”.

“We are disappointed that this escalation is taking place while engagement through the established industrial relations process remains ongoing,” they said.

“Oberstown is also concerned by inaccurate and misleading claims currently

circulating in the public domain, particularly in relation to staffing, attrition and safety.”

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