Judge hits out at botched handling of childcare case

Two young children, in temporary care for years, are to be returned to their parents after a judge criticised the handling of the case and ordered an investigation.

The eldest child had been in care for five years and the youngest for three. They are to be returned to their parents gradually, with the support of professionals.

The case is recorded in the Child Care Law Reporting Project’s fourth and final volume of 2014 reports, published today.

The judge, who granted a supervision order for one year, ordered the Child and Family Agency to conduct an independent investigation into the handling of the case. He described the delay in the case as “inordinate, inexcusable, and entirely unacceptable”.

The case concerned two children born in Ireland. The eldest was born three days after their parents arrived here from another jurisdiction.

Two of their children had been taken into care following evidence that the older child had been sexually abused. The parents had denied any involvement in the abuse and no perpetrator was ever identified.

However, social workers in the other jurisdiction said their unborn child would be taken into care at birth.

The judge said the failure of the Child and Family Agency, an independent body comprising various HSE and State services, to call evidence from the other jurisdiction relating to serious allegations against the parents was fundamental to his determination of the case.

It was for the agency to prove its case and it had failed to do so, the judge said.

“Reasonable concern or suspicion is not sufficient to enable this court to make care orders. This court only makes care orders on the basis of proved facts,” he said.

The judge has directed the guardian ad litem appointed in the case to write to the Health Information and Quality Authority and the Children’s Ombudsman, notifying them of the delays and asking them to consider an investigation.

“If changes, including legislative changes, were necessary to ensure that delays of this magnitude did not occur in future child care cases, then some benefit might be derived for children in the future,” he said.

Social services in the country where the parents had lived previously notified the HSE, who took the child into care a day after it was born. The parents got married a month before the birth of the second child, who was also taken into care.

The parents had supervised access with both children.

The judge also criticised the fact that the parents, after getting advice from a politician, had decided to come to Ireland because of differences in child care legislation, particularly relating to adoption.