Being treated fairly by the law

In Ireland, we don’t send children who have committed a very serious crime to prison. Instead, we send them to a detention centre. But before it gets to this point, there is an effort made to keep children out of detention. Instead, the Gardaí develop Youth Diversion Programmes to support young people to stay away from crime. Detention centres should be a last resort.

In Ireland, you can only go to a detention centre if you’re aged 12 – 17. A child aged 10 or 11 can only be detained for a very serious crime such as murder. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child would like to see this raised to 14, but it’s up to individual States to decide the minimum age in their country.

There is a separate Children’s Court which deals with criminal charges for children under 18. This is a private court, not everybody is allowed to be in the room during trials, and the in-camera rule applies – this means members of the public cannot attend. Find out more about your rights in the criminal justice system.

Sometimes, the court will appoint a person called a guardian ad litem (GAL). A GAL is an independent person who stands up for the child in court, for example if a child has to go to court to get state care, support or to arrange custody. The GAL is separate from judges, lawyers and family members. They represent the best interests of the child.

If a child wants to make a complaint about the Gardaí, they must contact the Garda Ombudsman instead of the Ombudsman for Children!