A teenager who has been stabbed, is being sexually exploited and has other teenagers seeking unprotected sex from them is “suffering harm every day” when the child should be getting the care they are “entitled to”, a judge has said.
The teenager is being exposed to substance abuse, is involved in self-harm, appears to be responding to hallucinations, and comes into sums of money that remain unexplained.
The judge was describing the child’s situation during a hearing last week of what is called the “no beds list”, a weekly review of the cases of children so at risk the High Court has ordered they be placed in secure care but who, nevertheless, remain out in the community.
Bizarrely, the orders are granted on the application of Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, which then, almost invariably, tells the court it is unable to comply with the order because it doesn’t have a bed.
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In the case of the teenager who is being sexually exploited, the order was granted by Mr Justice John Jordan late last year. Reading updates on the child situation on Thursday, the judge said it appeared the teenager’s problems were escalating.
“It is an absurd situation that this young [person] is out and about”, the judge said.
Last year the Supreme Court upheld Mr Justice Jordan’s view that Tusla has no discretion but must apply for a special care order when it believes there is a real and substantial risk of harm to the life, health, safety, development or welfare of a child, even if a bed for the child in one of the State’s three secure care units is not available.
In a recent affidavit to the court, the agency said that, of the 26 physical beds that exist in the accommodation facilities, only 14 are available because of staffing issues. The staffing issue is caught up in differences between two Government departments, the trade unions, and disputes around pay grades. As a result, the child – who is being sexually exploited, is indulging in self-harm, and is suffering from hallucinations – remains at large. Five other teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 currently on the no beds list are also at large. One has attempted suicide on a number of occasions.
Every week Mr Justice Jordan is updated on the position of these teenagers. He also hears updates on children in secure care and on children who have recently left secure care, as well as new applications for orders to have children placed in secure care.
One of those on Thursday’s “no bed” list was a teenager from a dysfunctional background who was taking drugs, drinking alcohol, probably being sexually groomed, and was living in a hotel.
“The consequences of this poor lad not getting the care he needs are likely to negatively impact on the rest of his life,” the judge said. The people involved in providing care and support to the child were doing wonderful work, he said, but those in power and in charge “should hang their heads in shame”. It was hard to argue with the proposition that “nobody really cares”.
The child care laws that govern secure care orders apply to teenagers until they reach their 18th birthday. At Thursday’s sitting, Donal Ó Muircheartaigh BL said children for whom secure care orders are made can “age out” of the system without ever being taken into care.
One of the updates heard by the court concerned a boy who was taken into care recently, is approaching his 18th birthday, is going through rapid detoxification from heroin, and is “in the throes of what follows from being in a regime of that type”, said Mr Ó Muircheartaigh, who acts for the child’s court-appointed guardian.
The teenager was the subject of an order issued in November but was not given a bed until early January, during which time he was taking cannabis, cocaine, heroin and opioids to such an extent the cognitive impairment they were causing was in danger of becoming irreversible, the barrister said.
Mr Justice Jordan said that while waiting for a bed this youth had been doing himself significant harm. David Leahy SC, for Tusla, said it had not been possible for the agency to comply with the November order because of the issues around pay that were preventing the use of some of the available beds.
Special care, he said, involved a “highly intensive intervention” and intensive staffing arrangements. The agency, he said, was doing what it could to address a situation that obviously could not be fixed overnight. Senior staff with the agency were working a “triage system”, deciding who on the list should get a bed and “making decisions about child risk that none of us would ever want to make”.
Examples heard of the level of support the teenagers can require included one who had been doing well in care but then had what Paul Gunning BL, for the agency, said was a “significant issue of self-harm” that required six care staff, and help from the Garda, before it was brought under control. Other cases heard by the court included teenagers responding to visual and auditory hallucinations, sometimes violently.
One child in care was being administered antipsychotic medication, had been involved in hitting and biting staff, and was at times assigned close protection officers to protect staff from being assaulted. The judge noted that he had met this child on two occasions. His behavioural problems, he said, were “not his fault”.
The judge made orders so that the strict in camera rules that govern childcare sittings could be breached and transcripts from the hearings shared with the departments of Children and Public Expenditure and Reform which, along with trade unions, have been for years been involved in the failure to resolve the staffing issue.
One positive note struck during the sitting concerned a teenager from a dysfunctional background who had been sexually active and involved in substance abuse before being taken into special care last year, two months after the special care order was made. The child had more recently been able to have access to a horse and this had helped them regulate their emotions. Access to the horse had been of “extraordinary benefit,” the court heard.
But it was hard to get away from the heartbreak. Sarah McKechnie BL, for the agency, said one of the teenagers on the no-bed list had now been allocated a bed. This teenager, who was abusing cannabis and pills, had been assaulted over drug debts, and had attempted to end their life, had been the subject of two orders during 2024 that were never acted on, but had now been chosen for a placement in care. The judge issued a new order, for three months. Responding to the development, Mary O’Toole SC, for the child’s guardian, said it was met with “huge relief on this side of the house”.
But when the case of another child came up later, another barrister, representing another guardian, said her client was “horrified” their child did not get the bed over the other child. Their child, who had been the subject of an order late last year, was at an extremely high risk of sexual exploitation, said the barrister, who addressed the court remotely.
It was “utterly disgraceful” this child could not be offered secure care, Mr Justice Jordan said. It was not the only time he used the phrase during a sitting where he was updated on 14 children and granted an application for a special care order in respect of another. One of the updates involved a teenager who had left special care recently and had just been charged with assault. The victim of the attack, the judge heard, was in hospital.
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