Judges dealing with cases of potential child sex abuse and serious mental health issues have expressed their deep frustration with the lack of appropriate facilities for vulnerable children in need of the State’s care.

Tusla succeeded in securing access to DVDs of garda interviews in which children alleged they were sexually abused by their parents, despite claims by gardaí that releasing the material could compromise its criminal investigation.

The number of court applications regarding children in care significantly rose last year, even though the number of children in the care system remained relatively static.

Bessborough has a dark past but is now being hailed as a model for keeping families together and supporting parents in need, says Noel Baker

An Irish teenager has been forced to remain in a psychiatric institution in Britain despite being ready for discharge, as there was no facility in Ireland to keep her.

The Government must prioritise the setting up of a dedicated Family Court — as promised in the programme for government — to avoid crowded lists, repeat adjournments, and chronic delays, a new report has urged.

A growing number of young people displaying extreme violence and other difficult behaviour are entering the care system, the chief operations officer of the Child and Family Agency has claimed.

People’s “lived experience” of family life and willingness to talk about it trumped all the arguments against change during both the divorce and marriage equality referendums, a family law expert has claimed.

Barnardos has said there is an “urgent need” for more investment in mental health and social work supports for vulnerable children after a new report indicated some children in care were not receiving the services they need.

A young boy was removed from his parents’ care after the family were found sleeping in a car and the parents were about to smoke heroin, according to the latest edition of the Child Care Law Reporting Project.

A specialist family court is urgently needed to deal with the current number of cases, according to the author of the latest interim Child Law Report.

A new report has said a Family Court, to handle child care orders, is needed as soon as possible.

The majority of parents involved in childcare cases in the courts are single or separated and parenting alone, while almost one in three children involved has special needs.

An Irish man offered to sexually abuse his daughter online for another man to watch, according to the latest volume of cases released from the [ulr=http://www.childlawproject.ie/]Child Care Law Reporting Project[/url].

An allegation that a father offered to abuse his young daughter online is among the horrific cases outlined in the latest report by the Child Care Law Reporting Project.

A new report into the removal of a Roma child from her home in Dublin has revealed that the family had been at the centre of previous childcare concerns.

The protection of children from abuse and neglect is an issue that has generated extensive public debate and a series of detailed inquiries in recent years.

The first interim report from the Child Care Law Reporting Project has found that 20% of children taken into the care of the State have special needs and 12% of all child care proceedings involve children whose parents have a mental illness or intellectual difficulty.

Alcohol, drug addiction and mental health problems are significant contributory factors in court orders being granted to take children into care.

The case of a six-year-old boy in overseas residential care for the past three years, and who can not remember his siblings, is just one of a number of tragic cases highlighted by a project that looks at how and why children are taken into care.

Wide variations in the number of child care orders made by district court judges have emerged in a groundbreaking study published yesterday.

A baby found in a wheelie bin and three children under the age of three left alone in "Dickensian squalor" are two of the cases that have been before the family courts.

Reports of court proceedings where a child is taken into State care will be published on a dedicated website for the first time this morning.

Court proceedings in which children are taken into the care of the HSE are to be published for the first time on a new website.

The Catholic Church has expressed its support for the children’s rights referendum amendment in a carefully qualified bishops’ statement which acknowledges its own failures to protect children.

The High Court has today dismissed an application to have editors and some other staff of two daily newspapers jailed for alleged contempt of court.

IN his column, Fergus Finlay (Opinion, August 23) has taken issue with comments I made in my letter regarding the unfair treatment of fathers in family law courts.

I WAS severely taken to task by a Mr Matt Harper, in a letter to the editor, over the article I wrote here last week.

Scores of men took to the streets of Dublin today to launch a fresh campaign for the rights of unmarried and separated fathers.

THE Courts Service has accepted a plan for wide-ranging reforms of the family law system that will allow the public to follow sample proceedings and enable judges’ decisions to be centrally recorded for the first time.

OUR family law courts remain a mystery to everyone except those who work in them or those who need its protection or adjudication.

Child protection will be one of the topics discussed at a major two-day conference opening today in Kilkenny.

HALF of all family law cases coming before the district court relate to domestic violence issues.

Domestic violence accounts for almost half of all cases heard at the Family Law courts and 40% of safety orders are granted by judges, it emerged today.

WARRING couples, who expect to use the family law courts to air grievances against an estranged partner, are getting short shrift.

A JUDGE handling childcare cases has complained that children brought before him because of concerns about their welfare have to make do with overstretched social workers, shortages of court time, ill-equipped accommodation and communication blunders.

AN article based on the report by Dr Carol Coulter on behalf of the Court Service paints a benign but misleading picture of the family law system (Irish Examiner, February 20).

THE picture painted of divorce in Ireland by the first-ever study of family law cases suggests it is far from the Kramer V Kramer style, tug-of-love variety much loved in popular fiction and TV soaps.

THERE has been widespread welcome for the appointment of journalist Carol Coulter by the Courts Service as its first-ever family law reporter.