Father can challenge level of access to his ‘emotionally traumatised’ son

A father has been given permission by the High Court to challenge his level of access and information he is being provided about one of his children who is currently in care.

The man has also questioned the quality of care currently being provided by Tusla, the Child and Family Agency to his “emotionally traumatised” son.

The father has claimed the boy, who is 12 years old, has absconded from several care placements and been found wandering the streets of their home town in the company of “undesirables”. The boy also has a history of self harm.

The father says his son has gone missing from the care placements for days without being informed by the CFA. On one occasion, he himself found his son in their home town, following a report from a family friend.

To not be informed that his son was missing the father says is “beyond contempt.”

The parties cannot be identified by order of the court.

The boy and his siblings are the subjects of care orders made several years ago over concerns about the parents’ ability to care for the children.

The father is separated from the children’s mother. The couple were never married. The father says there there was never a finding by a court he lacked the capacity to look after the children.

Permission to bring the action was granted by Mr Justice Richard Humphreys following a brief hearing that was on notice to the CFA. The CFA had opposed the application, and deny any wrongdoing.

It argued that the matters raised in the case should be put before the District Court where the care orders were originally made. The matter will be mentioned before the court next month.

Seeking leave, Feargal Kavanagh, counsel for the father, said his client had been granted limited access to his son.

The father was allowed supervised visits, at different locations where his son had been placed.

Those visits were reduced after the father was accused of being disrespectful to staff. This was something the father rejects. The father said that his son had become upset after their visits finished up and staff had found the boy difficult to manage The son has told the father he wants to live with him, counsel said.

Over the last year, the boy has been at different placements where he has absconded from. His father was not informed about this, and this has prompted him to bring proceedings against the CFA.

In his proceedings against the CFA the father seeks several orders and declarations from the court. These include orders directing the CFA to tell him where his son is located and inform him of any other location it is proposed to send the boy.

Another declaration sought is that the CFA is refusing to provide the boy with the level of care he needs and has failed in its statutory duty toward him. This amounts to a breach of their constitutional rights.

Other declarations sought include that the boy should be examined and assessed by a psychologist and psychiatric consultants, and the level of access granted to the father by the circuit court to the boy is being provided to him in an intolerable manner by the CFA.

The father also wants to bring the proceedings against the CFA on behalf of his son. He further seeks an order allowing him and his solicitor Ken Smyth immediate access to the boy so the solicitor may take instructions from the youngster in private.