Gardaí ‘reluctant’ to use Section 12 after Roma child scandals

The number of times children are taken into care under the Section 12 mechanism — used by gardaí in the case of the two Roma children earlier this year — has fallen in 2013.

Frances Fitzgerald, the children’s minister, yesterday told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children that while the Section 12 method was used on average 747 times a year between 2010 and 2012, in the year to date it has been employed on just 584 occasions.

My bill to give couples more time for Russian adoptions: http://t.co/rAHa9rJ2y2

— Frances Fitzgerald (@FitzgeraldFrncs) December 19, 2013