Tusla seeks court inquiry to establish whether a youth in its care is an adult – The Irish Times

Tusla believes a young person in its care, who came to Ireland as an unaccompanied asylum seeker last year, is an adult.

The child and family agency told Dublin District Court on Thursday that it wants it to investigate whether the youth, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, is in fact an adult and should be declared ineligible for its care.

Judge John Campbell heard that Tusla plans to call “six or seven” witnesses, including from abroad, to the inquiry that would be held in court.

It will apply for the inquiry under section 32 of the Childcare Act 1991.

“The agency is applying for an extension of the interim care order and also seeking to set down a date for a Section 32 inquiry at the earliest opportunity,” said Tusla’s solicitor.

Under section 32 a court is obliged to “make due inquiry as to the age of the person” who is the subject of the application.

“The age presumed or declared by the court to be the age of that person shall, until the contrary is proved, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to be the true age of that person,” it says.

Although asking the court to set a date promptly, counsel said it should be set for “at least three weeks hence”.

“We will have somewhere in the region of six or seven witnesses, some from other jurisdictions,” and time would be needed to “organise” these.

“There is a significant bundle of documentation that has been disclosed,” he said.

Brian Barrington, barrister for the teenager’s court-appointed advocate, said Tusla had carried out an “assessment of eligibility for services” – in effect “an assessment of whether [the young person] is or is not a child”.

“And they have concluded [the person] isn’t a child,” said Barrington.

He said he was surprised Tusla was seeking a date for an inquiry into the age given that an appeal process offered by Tusla to the youth, of its finding the person was not a child, had not concluded.

Barrington asked that a hearing date not be set until next week to allow a solicitor who has agreed to act for the youth in the inquiry to address the court at that point.

He said legally the young person remained a minor. “Nothing is changed in that regard,” he said.

“The court will determine if [the person] is a child or an adult. The agency will give evidence.”

Although a minor with a court-appointed advocate could not at the same time have a solicitor representing them in court, in a Section 32 inquiry they could have a person appointed “with the rights of party” in a court “for the purposes of a determination”.

Judge Campbell said: “It appears the sands are beginning to shift.”

Granting Tusla’s application for an extension to the interim care order, he said it had been granted last year “on the narrow basis” that the young person was “a minor without legal guardianship in the State” and that “continues to be met”.

A date for the section 32 inquiry into the young person’s age could be expected to be set on Tuesday, he said.