Changes urged over how gardaí use powers

A report into the wrongful removal of two Roma children from their homes by gardaí amid false fears they had been abducted recommends changes to the way Garda powers are used.

The recommendations focus on Section 12 of the Child Care Act, which specifically relates to gardaí and their powers to intervene where they believe a child is at immediate and serious risk and there is no time to get a warrant or to await a HSE application to the courts for an emergency care order.

Section 12 allows gardaí in those circumstances to enter a private house or any other building without warrant, by force if necessary, and remove the child to a place of safety before arranging for the child’s transfer to the HSE.

Key to the section is the requirement that gardaí have “reasonable grounds” for assessing the risk to the child as immediate and serious. It does not give guidance as to what constitutes reasonable grounds.

The report also addresses how confidentiality could and should be maintained to protect the identity of children and privacy of their families when action is taken under Section 12.

The report, compiled by Children’s Ombudsman Emily Logan at the direction of former justice minister Alan Shatter last December, is due to be made public this afternoon by his successor, Frances Fitzgerald.

Ms Fitzgerald is expected to apologise to the two families involved for the distress caused to them and their children by the Garda actions last October.

Both incidents took place within days of each other and against the background of international publicity surrounding the removal of a blue-eyed, blonde-haired girl from a Roma couple in Greece who were subsequently charged with her abduction.

Attention was drawn to the five-year-old child, known as Maria, because her appearance did not match that of a typical Roma child although, while the story sparked references to the Madeleine McCann case, it transpired she had been given to the couple by her Bulgarian mother.

In the first case here, a fair-haired seven-year-old girl was taken from her Roma family in Tallaght, Dublin, after a member of the public raised questions about her parentage. She was held in care for two days before DNA evidence confirmed her identity.

In the meantime, a fair two-and-a-half-year-old boy was taken from his home in Athlone, Co Westmeath, and kept overnight until his parents provided sufficient evidence that he was their son.

In one of his last public addresses before stepping down as minister, Mr Shatter warned gardaí about the dangers of racial profiling. Ms Logan’s report is understood to conclude that racial profiling did play its part in last October’s incidents but is not endemic in the force.

Advance copies of her report, which runs to over 100 pages, were provided to the families involved and their legal representatives in May.