Staff at the Finglas Child and Adolescent Centre will receive €2,000 each in disturbance money for moving to the new Oberstown Campus in Lusk, which is just 20 kilometres away.

In a ruling published last week, the Labour Court said that it is "not normally well disposed towards recommending compensation for disturbance arising out of the necessary relocation of premises and staff".

It was also pointed out that the Department of Finance had stopped the payment of disturbance money to public servants for relocating as far back as 1984.

But newly-appointed deputy court chairman Brendan Hayes, said that in this case it was pointed out that the new centre in Oberstown is not accessible by public transport and the nearest bus stop and train station is several miles away, while the existing Finglas centre is very accessible by public transport.

In addition, Hayes recommended that those of the 100 staff who do not wish to make the move or will be surplus to requirements will be offered a redundancy package of five weeks' pay per year of service while older staff can avail of an early retirement offer.

The recommendation is now expected to speed up the closure of the Finglas detention centre, which detains boys aged 10 to 16 years who are remanded in custody or after the conviction of criminal offences.

The Department of Justice has been trying to speed up the move to Oberstown for some time but has failed to reach agreement with staff, which are represented by Siptu and Impact. Court deputy chair Hayes said that he had been asked to issue the recommendation "at short notice" as "time was of the essence".

The Finglas centre has had industrial relations and security problems in the past. It was involved in three unfair dismissal cases between 2006 and 2008.