Photo credit: Oberstown Children Detention Campus website
Workers at Oberstown Children Detention Campus have begun a protest outside the Department of Children as an ongoing industrial relations dispute escalates.
The demonstration, involving members of the Fórsa trade union, coincides with a 10-hour work stoppage at the Dublin campus today. It is the third instance of industrial action taken by staff this month.
The action follows a ballot in which Fórsa members voted in favour of industrial action, up to and including a full withdrawal of labour. The union has previously raised concerns about staff safety, citing reports of assaults and injuries requiring hospital treatment at times when staffing levels were under pressure.
Workers at Oberstown have also been engaged in a work-to-rule since the end of June. Fórsa said there was growing frustration among its members after attempts to engage with management on key issues broke down last week.
Speaking to RTÉ's News at One, one staff member said some young people at the facility were able to “see opportunities” created by understaffing, which could contribute to increased incidents of violence. The worker said this was having a detrimental impact on staff members' mental health.
Another employee claimed that daily risk assessments were being undermined by management, leaving workers in situations they believed were unsafe.
Oberstown management, however, said it had taken steps to strengthen staffing levels. The organisation said it had recruited 23 frontline staff members over the past year, including two Social Care Worker apprentices.
Management also pointed to a reduction in the use of low-level physical interventions, which it said had fallen by 40% compared with the same period last year. There had been 30 such incidents recorded across more than 8,000 care nights in 2026 up to 31 July.
Fórsa assistant general secretary Deirdre O’Connell said the union was frustrated that Oberstown management had refused to include key elements of its claim in a business case being submitted to the Department of Children.
She said these measures included proposals aimed at tackling recruitment difficulties within the service. According to Ms O’Connell, management had argued that these issues should instead be dealt with through local bargaining, while also acknowledging that insufficient resources were available to resolve them through that process.
“The consequence of this approach is that it stalls efforts to resolve the issues in dispute and prolongs a situation where staff and residents face increased risks to personal safety,” she said.
Oberstown said it regretted the latest work stoppage and expressed disappointment at the escalation while the established industrial relations process remained ongoing.
The organisation said it and the Department of Children had engaged extensively with staff representatives, including through the Workplace Relations Commission. It added that it remained committed to working constructively towards a resolution and had taken a proactive approach to improving frontline staffing.
