Speaking on Thursday at the Dublin Children's Court, Justice Ann Ryan said that the fact that the State has just ten places for troubled teenagers in need of secure and special therapeutic care is, “a shame, a sin and a disgrace,” the Irish Times reports.
She made the remarks during a case involving a 17-year-old girl who has a drug addiction and keeps absconding from care.
The girl has been living in a residential care unit and had been ordered, as a condition of bail, to obey a curfew there. However, Sgt Séamus Treacy told Judge Ryan the girl had repeatedly gone missing in recent weeks and drug-taking paraphernalia had been found in her bedroom.
The girl had been placed in a residential care home, where the staff had worked endlessly to keep her secure, her social worker said. There are child protection concerns and an application to place her in a special secure care environment has been made.
The social worker said there are ten special care beds in the country; the decision on whether the girl would get one is in the hands of an HSE committee.
The judge said care workers had done their utmost, but the girl’s current placement is not appropriate and the priority is, “that she is off the streets and minded.”
She added, “It is a joke listening to the children’s referendum. Nothing changes and nothing will change with the referendum. The bottom line is the same as the first day I sat in this court.”
In relation to the ten special care beds she said, “I wonder how many managers are there in the HSE?” She added, “It is a shame, a sin and a disgrace.”
Meanwhile, a Senator has rejected the suggestion made by the Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald, that the current Constitution has failed children.
Senator Ronán Mullen was speaking in a debate on the children's referendum. He was responding to a speech made in the Seanad by Minister Fitzgerald, in which she said that repeated reports, starting with the Kilkenny Incest report, had shown that, “the constitution is failing our children.”
In response, Senator Mullen said that he rejected that contention.
Senator Mullen said, “I do not agree with the Minister that the Constitution fails our children. The amendment secures an imbuing spirit going forward but to blame the Constitution for failing children would be like blaming the constitutional provisions for mothers in the home for not providing in any meaningful way for families who wish to care for children within the home, such as through taxation.
“The Constitution establishes the spirit but I do not think it has ever frustrated the welfare of children. Governments have failed to properly implement legislation and systems have failed but I do not accept the analysis that our Constitution has failed.”