The State spent almost €17m last year keeping 27 troubled children in specialised residential care.

THE controversial Ballydowd residential care facility for children should be closed according to an inspections watchdog which said conditions there had worsened since a HSE U-turn on an initial plan to shut it down last year.

NO replacement beds have been provided for troubled teenagers requiring secure care following the closure of the state’s main special care unit last year.

THE appalling inadequacy of facilities for troubled teenagers in this benighted country is starkly underlined by today’s disturbing revelation that no service has yet been provided to fill the void left by the closure of the state’s main secure unit.

THE growing use of physical restraints to control extremely disturbed children at a special care facility in North Dublin has been criticised by health inspectors.