{"id":355840,"date":"2026-03-20T09:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T09:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/355840\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T09:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T09:08:08","slug":"tusla-seeks-court-inquiry-to-establish-whether-a-youth-in-its-care-is-an-adult-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/355840\/","title":{"rendered":"Tusla seeks court inquiry to establish whether a youth in its care is an adult \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tusla<\/a> believes a young person in its care, who came to Ireland as an unaccompanied asylum seeker last year, is an adult. <\/p>\n

The child and family agency told Dublin District Court<\/a> 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. <\/p>\n

Judge John Campbell heard that Tusla plans to call \u201csix or seven\u201d witnesses, including from abroad, to the inquiry that would be held in court. <\/p>\n

It will apply for the inquiry under section 32 of the Childcare Act 1991. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d said Tusla\u2019s solicitor.<\/p>\n

Under section 32 a court is obliged to \u201cmake due inquiry as to the age of the person\u201d who is the subject of the application.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d it says. <\/p>\n

Although asking the court to set a date promptly, counsel said it should be set for \u201cat least three weeks hence\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will have somewhere in the region of six or seven witnesses, some from other jurisdictions,\u201d and time would be needed to \u201corganise\u201d these. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a significant bundle of documentation that has been disclosed,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Brian Barrington, barrister for the teenager\u2019s court-appointed advocate, said Tusla had carried out an \u201cassessment of eligibility for services\u201d \u2013 in effect \u201can assessment of whether [the young person] is or is not a child\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they have concluded [the person] isn\u2019t a child,\u201d said Barrington.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

He said legally the young person remained a minor. \u201cNothing is changed in that regard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court will determine if [the person] is a child or an adult. The agency will give evidence.\u201d <\/p>\n

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 \u201cwith the rights of party\u201d in a court \u201cfor the purposes of a determination\u201d. <\/p>\n

Judge Campbell said: \u201cIt appears the sands are beginning to shift.\u201d<\/p>\n

Granting Tusla\u2019s application for an extension to the interim care order, he said it had been granted last year \u201con the narrow basis\u201d that the young person was \u201ca minor without legal guardianship in the State\u201d and that \u201ccontinues to be met\u201d. <\/p>\n

A date for the section 32 inquiry into the young person\u2019s age could be expected to be set on Tuesday, he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tusla believes a young person in its care, who came to Ireland as an unaccompanied asylum seeker last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8411,61,1629,60,43,53],"class_list":["post-355840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-dublin-district-court","tag-ie","tag-immigration","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-tusla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355840","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=355840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}