A judge in a provincial city granted an interim care order for 29 days for young teenage boy who had been sleeping rough and adjourned a section 18 care order application for two and a half weeks.
The solicitor for the Child and Family Agency (CFA) told the court that the youth had been sleeping rough in the city and that although the parents had been aware of this, they had not reported it. They were not willing to take him back home and the youth did not want to go home anyway.
The CFA had applied for an emergency care order the previous week. The parents had engaged with the CFA at the time, but had not engaged with it since. The parents were not in court and were not represented, but the CFA’s solicitor told the court that the parents were aware of the hearing that day.
The social worker said that the Gardaí had received a referral about the youth about two months earlier when he had been found taking drugs with adult males. The family did not engage with the CFA at that time.
In the following month the boy’s mother had made another referral about him. She said that her son’s behaviour had been too much to handle. He had set fire to curtains in the house, smoked cannabis and drank alcohol regularly. The social worker said that the youth had previously reported that he had been physically abused by his father including incidents such as being punched and being hit with a hammer on the knee.
At the time, the CFA had been ready to put supports in place for whole family if the family had been prepared to engage with it.
Most recently, the youth had been found by the Gardaí attempting to gain access to a vape shop. The Gardaí apprehended him before any damage had been done. The boy told the Gardaí that he did not want to go home. At the time the Gardaí picked him up, the youth had been missing for three or four days. His mother did not want him to come home due to his behaviour. She said that she had thought he was with a friend. She said that she could not take him until his anger issues had been addressed.
The social worker said that the mother was fully aware that he had been sleeping rough, though she had denied this. She said that the youth had been drenched and was shivering.
The parents did not attend court at the previous hearing when the CFA applied and was granted the emergency care order. The social worker had met with the mother the following day and tried to arrange a meeting between her, the social worker team leader and the boy in order to decide how to move forward. However, since that initial meeting, she had been unable to contact either parent. She said that the youth had come to the social work department in order to attend that meeting.
He had spent a few hours at the department and she had been able to engage with him quite a bit while he waited for his mother to come. His mother had not come. He had told the social worker that he loved his mother.
The social worker said that she had had no engagement with the youth’s father. He had come on one occasion to the social work department but it had been on her day off so she had not met him.
She said that the youth had been out of education since the start of the year. He had attended school briefly in order to do the mocks for Junior Cert. However, he was back in education now but so far only for the previous two days.
The youth was in emergency foster care at the time of the hearing. The foster carer had reported to the social worker that the youth had been quiet, very unassuming, prepared to talk and that she had had no trouble with aggression. The social worker told the court that she had also found the youth to be like that. He had admitted to anger issues to her, but she had never seen them displayed.
The Gardaí had looked to see if there was any family who would be prepared to take in the boy. However, the mother would not give her permission to allow the Gardaí or the CFA speak to anybody in the wider family.
The social worker said that the CFA had had no option but to apply for this interim care order. The mother had denied that the youth had been subject to any family abuse.
The judge asked the social worker if the youth would stay in his current foster placement. The social worker replied that ideally the youth would go into a family foster placement and the interim care order would give her a further opportunity to persuade the mother to allow the CFA speak to members in the wider family.
The judge noted that there had been no appearance by the youth’s parents in court and that an emergency care order was in place. He said that he was satisfied to make the interim care order for 29 days (6 April 2026). He dispensed with the consent of the parents to allow the CFA provide all necessary medical treatment and care to the youth. The section 18 care order application was adjourned.