Report wanted on girl pregnant in care

A FULL report on the case of a 13-year-old girl who became pregnant after being sent to Britain under the care of a health board has been requested by the Minister for Health and Children.

The girl, who has just turned 14 and is 22 weeks pregnant, was sent to Britain because there was no suitable care facility available in Ireland.

Minister Micheál Martin yesterday requested a "comprehensive report" on the case from the Midland Health Board which was charged with the care of the teenager.

He pointed out that this and other types of cases of adolescents in care were "very sensitive" and it was policy not to comment on individual cases.

A spokesperson for the health board has denied claims by the girl's mother that it has already made arrangements for the girl to have an abortion in a British clinic.

"The board has made no decision in relation to that," said the spokesperson.

The teenager, who is now back in Ireland, was due to go to Britain for three months but remained there for more than a year.

There are currently 4,500 children in care, with 13% in residential care centres. It is understood only a fraction of children in care are sent to Britain where they are cared for in highly specialised facilities.

There are 176 children's residential care centres in the State 102 managed by health boards.

The ISPCC's assistant director of services, Caroline O'Sullivan, said the case warranted a child protection investigation.

"Our reason for calling for such an investigation is not to criminalise underage sexual activity but to check whether the pregnancy was the result of a situation where an adult abused this child," she said.

Ms O'Sullivan claimed all areas of child protection were under-resourced with social workers doing their best to cope with huge case loads. "If more resources were available we could better protect children it's as basic as that."

The issue also raised the question of vetting people working in centres for children, she added.

The 2002 annual report from the Social Services Inspectorate (SSI), published earlier this year, found just one of the 22 children's residential care centres inspected last year had carried out adequate checks on staff before employing them.