{"id":131746,"date":"2025-11-10T07:17:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T07:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/131746\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T07:17:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T07:17:07","slug":"judge-incandescent-with-rage-at-tusla-failure-to-provide-secure-bed-for-child-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/131746\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge \u2018incandescent with rage\u2019 at Tusla failure to provide secure bed for child \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A judge was \u201cincandescent with rage\u201d that Tusla<\/a> could not provide a secure bed for a young child \u201cat risk of death\u201d due to their use of drugs, involvement in transporting drugs and travelling in stolen cars. <\/p>\n

Dublin District Court<\/a> Judge John Campbell said on Friday the preteen child \u201cshould be getting ready for Santa Claus\u201d, but instead was worrying about where they would be at Christmas. <\/p>\n

He heard the High Court<\/a> had made an order the previous day that the child be detained in a special-care unit \u2013 the most secure form of care \u2013 for their own safety. <\/p>\n

No bed was available in any of the three special care units, however, with none expected to be available until January. <\/p>\n

The child remains in an unregulated, unregistered placement, known as special emergency arrangement (SEA), and is one of two children in respect of whom special-care orders are in place but who cannot get a special-care unit bed. <\/p>\n

Though 26 special-care beds exist, just 15 are operational due to challenges recruiting and retaining staff.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Mother of \u2018out of control\u2019 boy suing Tusla over failure to provide secure care placeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The court heard the child\u2019s parents, who were in court, had voluntarily placed the child in care in recent weeks as the child needed \u201cstabilisation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Solicitor Seona N\u00ed Mhurch\u00fa, for the mother, described the situation as \u201chighly unsatisfactory\u201d. The child\u2019s case was now on the \u201cno beds\u201d list before High Court Justice John Jordan, who hears the weekly special-care list. <\/p>\n

Mr Justice Jordan had heard \u201charrowing evidence\u201d on Thursday, she said, that the child was involved in \u201cjoyriding, acting as a drug runner … and smoking cannabis\u201d. The child \u201cneeds a bed as matter of priority,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Solicitor Niall McGrath for the guardian ad litem \u2013 a independent person appointed by the court to be the voice of the child \u2013 said it was an \u201caffront to judicial system and the child-protection system\u201d that an order for special care for a child could be sought by and granted to Tusla, only for Tusla to not give effect to that order.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe agency must use every endeavour to safeguard [the child],\u201d he said. It was \u201cnot tenable\u201d for Tusla to come into court for weekly reviews saying there was no special-care bed.<\/p>\n

He indicated plenary proceedings may be issued against Tusla if the situation continued. <\/p>\n

It comes as Tusla confirmed to The Irish Times five sets of plenary proceedings have been issued against it \u201cin respect of children for whom special-care orders have been made since the start of this year\u201d. <\/p>\n

Barrister Maeve Cox, for the father, asked Tusla\u2019s chief regional officer (CRO) for the area where the child lived if they would be effectively \u201cplaying God\u201d in January when deciding which of the two children \u201cat risk of death\u201d gets a bed. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat is sadly the position I am in … That is a reality I am having to face,\u201d said the CRO. \u201cUntil we have enough qualified staff [for special-care units] we cannot [open more beds] \u201c.<\/p>\n

It was \u201creally unfortunate\u201d the child was in a SEA with \u201cno end in sight\u201d but an unregistered placement \u201cwas a safer option\u201d than leaving them in the community, said the CRO. There had been \u201cimprovements\u201d in the child\u2019s risk level since coming into the SEA. <\/p>\n

Mr Justice Campbell noted the parents always attended court. Listing the matter for mention next Monday, he said: \u201cThis child should be getting ready for Santa Claus, instead of worrying about where [they] will be … This … court remains incandescent with rage at the lack of a special-care placement for [the child]\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A judge was \u201cincandescent with rage\u201d that Tusla could not provide a secure bed for a young child…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[76750,5721,8411,73,61,60,43,53],"class_list":["post-131746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-children-s-health","tag-district-court","tag-dublin-district-court","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-tusla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}