The Department of Justice was criticised by Judge Kieran O'Connor because there was no place to detain a 15-year-old boy. Judge O'Connor had earlier imposed three years' detention on the boy for his role in causing extensive damage at a £200,000 Tallaght supermarket site by lighting a gas cylinder in it on May 5th, 1994.
However, about an hour after he made the detention order, Judge O'Connor had to release the defendant on continuing bail when he was told there was no bed available in any suitable place of detention.
Judge O'Connor said: "I am totally frustrated by the failure of the Department of Justice to have a place of detention available for this boy. It makes my order ineffective. All I can do is to make an order that he be released. It is most unsatisfactory".
He remanded the boy on continuing bail overnight and added: "This case has been before the court many times and the Department should have been prepared with a place for him when it was needed. If there is no place available when he returns to court, I will let him go free again."
Both prosecution counsel Mr Desmond Zaiden and defence counsel Mr Dan Boland agreed that Judge O'Connor had "bent over backwards" to help the boy remain free but he had failed to take the chances given him.
When he pleaded guilty in March 1996 to the offence, he was released on bail to November on conditions which included a nightly 9 p.m. home-curfew.
Sgt Olga McPartlin told Judge O'Connor at that hearing that both parents took an interest in his welfare.