Website reveals circumstances of some children taken into State care

A baby found in a wheelie bin and three children under the age of three left alone in "Dickensian squalor" are two of the cases that have been before the family courts.

The details of family court cases are being published online for the first time today.

A website for the Child Care Law Reporting Project is being launched which aims to shine a light on family law cases in the District Courts.

For reasons of privacy these cases are heard behind closed doors, but now sample reports of court proceedings where children are taken into care will be published on a dedicated website.

Carol Coulter, who is leading the project, said: "Because it was necessary to preserve family privacy, what was known as the 'in camera rule' operated which meant there could be no reporting, but it actually operated to restrict any information of any kind getting out about what actually happened and about the process of how the children went into care.

"That secrecy now is gone. Of course we don’t know the names or identities of the families, but we know the process, we know the reasons."

Children's Minister Frances Fitzgerald, whose Department supports the project, said it was of great value.