If Tusla was a parent in the community, it would be prosecuted by garda\u00ed and pursued by social workers for exposing the most vulnerable children to extreme risk, a High Court judge has said. <\/p>\n
Responding to Judge John Jordan\u2019s remarks on Monday, counsel for the agency replied: \u201cThat\u2019s correct, judge.\u201d<\/p>\n
The court was hearing the weekly special-care list, where updates are provided on children in special care, those who have recently left and those for whom orders have been made but cannot access a bed. <\/p>\n
Special care is the most secure form of safe keeping. Children aged between 11 and 17 may be detained by the High Court in one of the three units when their behaviour or circumstances pose a risk to their life, safety or welfare. <\/p>\n
Just 14 of 26 beds are operating, however, due to severe challenges Tusla faces recruiting and retaining special care workers. <\/p>\n
Two boys whom the court had ordered be detained could not get beds and were on Monday\u2019s \u201cno beds\u201d list. <\/p>\n
The plight of one, who was assaulted in recent days and whose family is being pursued for drug debts, was \u201creally concerning\u201d, said Tusla barrister Sarah McKechnie. <\/p>\n
He had considerable \u201cinvolvement in criminal activity\u201d and several \u201cinteractions with An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na\u201d. It was \u201choped there may be a bed in August,\u201d said McKechnie. <\/p>\n
It was a matter of urgency that the teenager got a bed, said counsel for his court-appointed guardian ad litem. \u201cHe is suffering actual and avoidable harm due to not getting special care,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
The judge asked McKechnie if she had \u201cany instructions\u201d from Tusla as to what was being done to \u201cexpedite\u201d a bed for the boy whose safety, and perhaps life, are at real and escalating risk. <\/p>\n
McKechnie offered to provide a report on the agency\u2019s efforts to increase bed capacity. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo. I am trying to keep myself on an even keel here,\u201d replied the judge. \u201cWhen I ask the hard questions I am promised a report … I am inundated with reports. Reports are no good to [this boy] whose life, health, safety, development and welfare are at real risk. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn any other walk of life … And I am trying to get through to the powers that be here, the Child and Family Agency and the [Departments of Children and of Public Expenditure], in any other walk of life if a person with responsibility for a young, vulnerable child exposed that child to risk of harm, they would be … facing criminal sanction. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf a parent was exposing a child through neglect, or recklessness or direct action, to risks to their lives, safety, health, development and welfare, two separate organs of the State would intervene. One is Tusla and the other is the garda\u00ed. Isn\u2019t that so?\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s correct, judge,\u201d said McKechnie. <\/p>\n
A boy who has been absconding from his placement, using a \u201ccocktail of drugs\u201d and losing consciousness as a result, was also on Monday\u2019s no beds list. <\/p>\n
A bed became available for him during the hearing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If Tusla was a parent in the community, it would be prosecuted by garda\u00ed and pursued by social…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,53],"class_list":["post-560545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tusla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560545","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=560545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}