Day-old baby boy taken into HSE custody

A day-old breast-fed baby was taken from its mother yesterday after a strong force of gardaí surrounded a house in a border county on the instructions of HSE care workers.

Mr Justice Sean Ryan will sit in the High Court first thing today to hear legal argument as to the lawfulness of the baby’s detention.

Michael O’Higgins SC, counsel for the baby and its mother, told the court that the child was born on Wednesday and by Thursday evening it was the subject of an emergency care application by the HSE in the district court.