Lack of out-of-hours social workers ‘is inhumane’

THE Government has been criticised for allowing a situation develop whereby a troubled 15-year-old boy had to sleep in a Garda station because officers could not contact social workers.

Fine Gael senator Jerry Buttimer told the Seanad that the Government’s record on the provision of social services was “appalling” and “inhumane”.

Mr Buttimer was reacting to an Irish Examiner story which documented how the 15 year old, who ran away from his foster parents in Cork, ended up sleeping in Mallow Garda station because officers could not contact Health Service Executive (HSE) social workers on the night in question.