'Life changing injuries' - Staff fears over safety after Oberstown incidents

RTÉ News​

8 hours ago

A staff member has been left with "life changing injuries" following a number of violent attacks on workers at a children's detention centre in Dublin.
A total of ten staff at Oberstown Children Detention Campus have sustained injuries across three violent incidents since 8 June.
The most recent took place on Wednesday in which nine staff members were injured, four of whom required hospital treatment, and are now expected to be out of work for a month or more.
There was also one "very serious incident" on 11 June where a staff member "had their face slashed", trade union Fórsa said.
It said that during an attempt to move a young person, a residential social care worker sustained a deep facial injury.
Fórsa said no additional protective measures or staffing supports had been put in place by Oberstown management, despite previous violent incidents.
Fórsa Media Relations Director Niall Shanahan said the situation at Oberstown is becoming "more critical" due to staff shortages and staff retention issues.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Shanahan said staff have tried to raise the issue of assaults on workers over the last number of years.
"Staff have told me that quite frequently they don't have enough staff to cover the shift so they're operating below capacity," he said.
Mr Shanahan also pointed to the "difficulty" of staff retention, saying that of the ten new staff that began work at Oberstown in this year, only two of them are still working on the campus.
"We have staff who are trying to raise these issues with management at the Oberstown campus and we have a management group who appear unwilling, I think, to engage with the reality as staff are experiencing it," he said.
Mr Shanahan said staff members, rather than management, are required to report incidents to gardaí, which he said suggests an "unwillingness" to take responsibility for what is happening to staff.
He said the environment on campus is "becoming more and more unsafe" for both residents and staff.
He said that Fórsa has contacted Oberstown management for an engagement, which he expects to take place in the next few days.
"The longer this goes on and isn't addressed, the more unsafe everybody on the Oberstown campus is," he added.
In a statement, the Department of Education said it offers its full support to any member of staff who has been injured during the course of their work.
"As with all circumstances of this nature, these matters will be the subject of internal review. The Department does not comment on operational matters relating to Oberstown Children Detention Campus."