Audit of emergency garda powers to take children from parents

Gardaí are about to organise an independent audit of its use of emergency powers regarding the removal of children from their parents.

This will examine the circumstances of the cases and whether or not the ethnic background of the children and their families played any role in the decisions.

The audit was a central recommendation of the so-called Roma report, which inquired into the removal of two children by gardaí from their Roma parents in October 2013 on suspicion they might have been abducted.

That report, published in July 2014 by then children’s ombudsman Emily Logan, found that the children were wrongly removed and that gardaí did not carry out sufficient inquiries beforehand.

Ms Logan concluded that the gardaí in both cases —Child A in Tallaght, Dublin, and Child T in Athlone, Co Westmeath — had engaged in “ethnic profiling” in their decisions.

Ms Logan recommended an independent audit of the Garda’s use of Section 12 of the Child Care Act 1991.

She also said gardaí should have enhanced access to information on children held by Tusla, the child and family agency, and the HSE, and called for a national out-of-hours social work service. The report of an implementation group, which was written last June but only published by the Department of Justice in recent weeks, outlines the measures taken up to June.

“Tusla has undertaken an audit of interventions notified by An Garda Síochána under section 12 for 2012 and 2013,” read the report.

“In addition, An Garda Síochána is finalising arrangements for the conducting of an independent audit.”

It said the Department of Health and the HSE were exploring options to contact public nurses out of hours.

The report said a national out-of-hours social work service was also “under development” by Tusla. It further said “plans are in place” to allow gardaí access Tusla’s national child care information system.

A spokeswoman for Tusla yesterday said the emergency out of hours service (EOHS) went live in November 2015. She noted that a national EOHS call centre provided social work consultation and advice to the gardaí.

She said gardaí have access to a local on-call social worker and that placements for children are provided by external contractors.