Cases

Case Reports 2025 Volume 1

Reporters from the Child Law Project attend cases in District Courts around the country selected on a random basis, and cases in the High Court involving children and young people in secure care and those made Wards of Court. We publish below the latest volume of case reports.

Given the nature of some of the cases, which can go on for many months with multiple adjournments, not all reports published below are complete, but rather reflect what happened in court on that day. We categorise the reports under six headings and multiple sub-headings; several reports could have been categorised under more than one heading.

Introduction

Care Orders

  1. Care orders for adolescents granted where drug use, emotional abuse and neglect was alleged
  2. Care order for non-verbal autistic child following three-day hearing
  3. Full care order on consent for infant whose mother incarcerated
  4. Full care order for child who suffered non-accidental injuries as a baby
  5. Care order extended amid concerns for mother’s mental health
  6. Six month care order for teenage boy following school referral
  7. Two-year care orders made for three children who had suffered unintentional neglect
  8. Judge: children have been failed by both the Gardaí and the Child and Family Agency
  9. Judge grants care order for young child whose parents in separate prisons
  10. Six-month care order for seven young children, parents struggling with addiction issues
  11. Three-year care order made for child with complex needs to remain in her grandparents’ care
  12. Full care order application adjourned after mother’s legal team comes off record; interim arrangements continued
  13. Five-year care order granted for two boys after long-standing neglect
  14. Full care order granted for baby born with drug withdrawal where mother had not engaged
  15. Care order until 18 uncontested as child enters care of grandmother
  16. Care orders for six children following three-day hearing
  17. Care order granted to the age of 18 for 10-month-old baby who had little contact with parents since birth due to drug use
  18. Care order granted for young child where four other siblings in care
  19. Short care order for a young Eastern European boy following death of grandmother and incarceration of mother
  20. District Court grants a six-month care order for a toddler to allow mother to address her substance abuse
  21. Full care orders for two children where DNA test finds assumed father not biological father of girl
  22. Short care order extensions to allow father apply for accommodation

Interim Care Orders

  1. Interim care orders for three out of five autistic children while private law custody proceedings ongoing
  2. Interim Care Order granted for newborn as mother, a possible victim of human trafficking, remains in psychiatric care
  3. Interim care order granted for children to go into care of half-sister
  4. Interim care order granted for two-week-old baby after three-day hearing
  5. Interim care order for newborn baby born with toxicology due to be discharged from hospital
  6. Consent to interim care order after child over a year in voluntary care
  7. Interim care orders for two teenagers amid allegations of physical and emotional abuse
  8. Interim Care Order granted for teenager whose mother used drugs, sibling already in relative foster care
  9. Application for an initial ICO reluctantly withdrawn by the judge in DMD
  10. Interim care order for teenage girl in voluntary care for three months
  11. Interim care order for young girl following concerns of neglect and alleged drug activity at her home, supervision order previously in place

Extensions of Interim Care Orders

  1. Interim care order extended for three children amid serious safety and welfare concerns in placement
  2. Interim care order extended for teenager who was sexually assaulted when she repeatedly absconded from “special emergency arrangement”
  3. Interim care order extended despite opposition from parents, judge concerned at “coercive control” of girl
  4. Interim care order extended for four-month-old boy; judge refuses to set full care order hearing to allow parents engage in treatment
  5. Interim care order extended and consent dispensed with for children’s dental treatment
  6. Interim care orders for three children extended amid concerns over delay in therapy for access with father
  7. Interim care order for two children extended where parents had not engaged
  8. Judge: “some of worst neglect ever seen” of young child, directs CFA to respond to GAL’s concerns in writing
  9. Extension of Interim Care Order for Child with ASD and mental health needs
  10. One-month extension to care order for teenager currently residing in the UK, to allow her continue to receive supports from Tusla while UK authorities refuse to engage

Unaccompanied Minors

  1. Interim Care order granted for non-national child suspected of being trafficked for sex trade
  2. Full Care Order granted for teenager from war-torn country separated from family
  3. Initial interim care order granted for unaccompanied minor
  4. Full Care Order to 18 for unaccompanied teenage boy smuggled into Ireland
  5. Interim Care Order for unaccompanied teenage boy from south Asia
  6. Judge requires information on unaccompanied minor’s education for integration as extends interim care order

Reviews and Re-entries

  1. Review of long-term care order hears of therapy needs and concern about access with father
  2. Further review directed for teenage boy in care, diagnosed with mental disorder, who had withdrawn to his bedroom
  3. Delay in child abuse substantiation procedure by Gardaí into teenager’s allegations puts her placement in residential centre at risk
  4. Judge “extremely dissatisfied” that no placement for troubled teenage boy, reviewing case every two weeks
  5. Judge reviews 30 cases where children were unallocated to social workers for a number of months
  6. Review of long-running care orders; rural placement noted and prison-based father seeks video access
  7. Urgent re-entry after teenager absconds from foster placement
  8. Re-entry where child on eighth placement risking another placement breakdown among a number of cases concerning breakdowns
  9. District Court Judge calls for the removal of a disruptive resident who had been bullying two siblings in residential care placement

Supervision Orders

  1. Supervision order for teenager where private family law proceedings ongoing
  2. Supervision Order re-entered for a teenager suffering serious medical condition
  3. Supervision order for four children adjourned to allow for assessments

Section 47

  1. Judge believes cases are being missed and strongly criticises “failure of the State to fund” care system for the past two decades
  2. District Court judge directs CFA to provide funding for the private treatment of a teenage boy with ADHD

Mental Health Act

  1. Detention under Mental Health Act extended for girl with anorexia nervosa
  2. Child in care with suicidal ideation detained in special mental health facility under Mental Health Act

Emergency Care Orders

  1. Emergency care order for boy amid concerns about mother’s mental health
  2. Emergency Care Orders for three young children one of whom had been brought to a garda station by a member of the public

Special Care

  1. Special care required for 11-year-old boy in fifth SEA, four broke down
  2. Emergency Care Order for young child who needed to be in special care but did not qualify, existing placement about to end
  3. Special care application in preparation after young person goes missing and stays in apartment where drugs used

After Care

  1. Dublin District Court considers after-care planning for six teenagers

Procedural/Legal Issues

  1. Judge recognises special guardianship order granted in the UK
  2. Enhanced rights granted to long-term foster carers
  3. Court hears update on CFA audit of cases where children in care had no social worker despite court direction; 685 breaches of court orders identified
  4. Costs awarded to parents and GAL following Supreme Court jurisprudence in exceptional child care case, taken under Mental Health Act
  5. Judge hears truancy criminal case on child care day