The Minister for Children says that from today, children in Ireland sentenced by the courts will no longer be sent to adult prisons.

Instead, boys under the age of 18 will be held at the Oberstown Children Detention Centre in Lusk, Co Dublin.

Minister Katherine Zappone has also announced that St Patrick's Institution will be shut down definitively from next Friday, the 7th of April.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust has welcomed both decisions as a "momentous" move towards ending the damaging practice of sending children to adult prisons.

Spokesperson Fíona Ní Chinnéide says Ireland has come under damning international criticism for its treatment of child offenders: