Children of Irish couple taken into care over drink binge in Portugal

A FAMILY from Northern Ireland is facing investigation by UK social services, after three children were taken into care while on holiday in Portugal - because their parents were totally drunk.

The family went out to dinner on Friday night just hours after arriving in Portugal, but when they returned to their hotel in Vilamoura on the Algarve at dawn, the parents could not reach their hotel room and had to be assisted into a lift by staff.

The three children aged one, three and six years were upset and crying, according to hotel workers who called the Portuguese National Institute of Medical Emergency.

While the parents, aged 35 and 32, were taken to the Loulé Health Clinic to recover, the children were brought to the Aboim Ascensao shelter in Faro.

Dr Luis Villas-Boas, the shelter director, said the incident was "very, very shocking".

"It's normal for a couple for one to drink while the other doesn't drink. The problem here is they were both passed out.

"It was extreme neglect and abandonment. I hope somebody carries this information to the UK so these parents can at least be seen because these children are indeed at risk" he said.

The incident happened on the eve of the first anniversary of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, who went missing from her family's Algarve holiday flat while her parents dined nearby.

A barman at the Aparthotel Mourabel in Vilamoura, where the family had booked a week's holiday said they were well dressed, "nice people, with well-behaved children". The parents had been drinking on Friday night at a nearby bar with a happy hour until 8pm where a pint of lager costs just €1.00, he said.

When they returned after their night out the husband collapsed in the hotel reception, while his wife staggered into the bar with her children and fell into a chair, the barman said.

A spokesman for the local police in Vilamoura said hotel staff called them "as the children were crying and they could not revive the parents, who were both out cold."

Just before 11am on Saturday the shelter received a fax from the on-duty public attorney for Faro saying that the children should be returned to their parents.

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London yesterday confirmed that it had through its embassy in Lisbon been made aware of the incident.

A spokeswoman said that although no assistance had been sought, it was very likely that the UK social services would have to be notified as there appeared to be an issue of child protection involved.