FOR more than 10 years the Irish Examiner has been reporting on the problems of a special care unit for troubled teenage girls just outside Cork.

GIRLS going missing in the middle of the night, stolen keys, out-of-control behaviour, self-harming, and staff who could not cope with teenagers in their care.

A SCOTTISH facility for seriously troubled youths which had previously taken referrals from the HSE is no longer going to do so as it needs the beds for its own young people.

MORE than one-third of the staff working at a secure centre for troubled teenagers are agency staff — a practice that has been heavily criticised by the Health and Information Quality Authority (HIQA).

SIGNIFICANT failings in the management and staffing of special care units are compromising the state’s capacity to meet the needs of the vulnerable children they house, a report has found.

THE state is paying private residential childcare companies in the region of €14,000 a week to look after individual children, while beds remain empty in homes run by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

FORMER Ireland international soccer player Gary Kelly appeared before Drogheda District Court yesterday to face charges of trespass with intent to commit criminal damage.

IF you are not part of the solution, then maybe you are part of the problem.

WAY, way more grounds, for way, way less cash, are now offered at the big family home Gleann Alainn, at Kilcoolishal, Glanmire, just east of Cork city.

A CHILD and adolescent psychiatric unit closed during the health cuts of the 1980s has been re-opened by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

A CORONER warned people yesterday about the dangers of wearing dark clothing while walking in the dark on country roads.

AN inspection of a secure unit for troubled teenage girls found eight absconded from care over a 10-month period, one for 17 days.

DR PAT WALLACE, director of the National Museum of Ireland, is to be commended for the very positive and sincere oration he gave at the annual Béal na Bláth commemoration in honour of Michael Collins.

WITH Ballygarvan put on the map as a residential location near Cork city by a housing scheme nearing completion, buyers keen on the handy country village location have limited options in the market place.

GARDAI are concerned about security at a centre for girls at risk after two teenagers claimed they were raped when they absconded from the unit.