A placement was found for a vulnerable teenager after a Dublin District Court judge said he would sit all night if necessary until a suitable placement was found. The boy’s guardian ad litem had brought a Section 47 application asking the court to direct that a placement be found.
Solicitors for the CFA and HSE confirmed that the teenager, who was due to go into the care of the HSE when he turned 18, was without a placement. It was possible he would have to avail of out-of-hours accommodation, essentially an unregulated hostel for men.
The boy had been born with foetal alcohol syndrome, a disability as covered by the Disability Act 2005. His parents were deceased and the solicitor for the GAL summed it up – “he has no one else.” He had engaged insignificant self-harm in recent weeks and the GAL’s solicitor expressed concern that “this child might be dead after the weekend.” She further updated the court that he had no prospect of keeping himself safe. It had not been possible to keep him safe in his current placement, and he had issues with the staff there.
The GAL’s solicitor noted that one possible solution being looked at was to place agency staff into the placement over the weekend, to enable him to remain there. Apart from the staffing issue, the judge asked: “Why can’t he stay where he is?” The solicitor explained that the placement was engaged by the CFA under a third-party contract. The placement decided whether or not to keep him. She said: “It comes back to the CFA, which chooses to engage such third parties”.
The judge told all practitioners present: “if I have to sit all night, I am here until we get him a placement.” The matter was let stand, to enable the practitioners to thrash out a solution.
After lunch, the practitioners returned to court. The solicitor for the HSE confirmed that a placement was found in north Dublin, with a staff to child ratio of 2:1. He said the boy was “in a car going to that placement”. The placement had agreed that he could stay there over the weekend, until at least Tuesday of the following week.
The CFA and HSE hoped that a more permanent placement would materialise in a neighbouring county, with parallel planning continuing in case that did not happen. As the child was to go into the care of the HSE when he turned 18, the judge asked if his post-18 placement could be found ahead of his eighteenth birthday. He listed the matter For Mention on the following Tuesday and adjourned the GAL’s section 47 application for a direction that a placement be found.