Gardaí seek to meet Andrews over care fears

GARDAÍ have sought a meeting with Minister for Children Barry Andrews to discuss their ongoing concerns about “not being trained or resourced to act as virtual social workers” to children who require out-of-hours emergency foster care placements.

For the past year, gardaí have been charged with finding an “appropriate place of safety for children found to be at risk out of hours” under the HSE’s Emergency Place of Safety (EPS) service. In most of the country, gardaí are charged with contacting a private foster care agency, Five Rivers Ireland, but in Dublin, Kildare and Wickow, they can contact a skeleton staff of out-of-hours HSE social workers.

According to the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), the present system means that terrified children can end up spending hours in a Garda station awaiting placement. “We are literally left holding the baby,” said AGSI National Executive member Sergeant Willie Gleeson.