THERE are seven German charitable organisations fostering problem children, mostly adolescents, in Ireland, mainly in the north-west and in west Cork.
The involvement of some of the youngsters in petty criminal activity in the local communities has been an unexpected spin off of this practice.
Last March a group of German and Irish youths broke into a holiday home in the Calry area of Sligo town. They drank wine found in the house and lit a fire using the owner's large book collection.
The fire spilled out on to the floor, causing smoke and water damage. A neighbour caught the German youngsters coming out of the house the following morning.
One youngster was repatriated. The German charities responsible for the children paid for some of the damage, and the rest was covered by insurance, so the house has been repaired.
The incident revived local worries about the children being fostered. They remembered other incidents in the past, including the burning of hay sheds, a break in at a local post office and the theft of a car.
But local gardai are not concerned about the contribution to crime from these young people. "There were problems a number of years ago, but we've had very little recently," Supt Jim Sheridan from Sligo said.
Insp Barnes Murphy of Manorhamilton agreed. "They're not causing any more problems than any other youngster. The finger would be pointed at them very fast on account of them being strangers."
According to the North Western Health Board, 18 of the young Germans are being fostered with 11 families in the area. "Any trouble they have they sort out themselves and they are sent back," Insp Murphy said.
Supt Sheridan pointed out that this was not necessarily an evasion of the law. "If it was an Irish child of the same age they would not be prosecuted."
The German charitable organisations currently have about 45 children placed throughout Ireland, according to a German social scientist who works for one of the organisations. He asked not to be named in order to preserve the confidentiality of the children he works with.
"These are children who are victims of abuse, neglect, lovelessness," he said. "They deserve loving care in normal families, in a safe rural environment. Most of the organisations sending children to Ireland specify that they go to rural areas."
While these placements have been going on for over a decade, it is only in the last year that the Department of Health, through the health boards, has begun to monitor the situation.
In a letter to the Sligo-Leitrim Labour TD, Mr Declan Bree, in February 1995 the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, said. "I am very concerned that these placements are being arranged without the knowledge or involvement of the health boards.
"Under the Children Acts there is a legal requirement on a person proposing to foster a child privately and on the person or body making the arrangements for the placement of a child to give at least seven days' notice in writing to the health board for the area where the proposed foster parent resides. This requirement has not been complied with in respect of the German adolescents.
Meetings were subsequently held between the Department, the German embassy and representatives of the agencies involved, and in June that year the Department issued a circular to all health boards informing them of the need to register all German placements.
The social scientist said the scheme is financed fully by the German government, which gives money to church and other charitable organisations to provide care for children who, for one reason or another, cannot live at home.
The prospective foster families are vetted by the German organisations, not by the Irish authorities. He would like to see this happen as well. "The Irish system is overloaded by the Child Care Act," he said. "The health boards refused to do vetting. I'm not happy about that situation."
Most of the families are German speaking, though not all. In the North Western Health Board area three of the 11 families involved are Irish. The social scientist said that his organisation insisted there must be at least one member of the family with "workable" German.
He also prefers the family to include someone with relevant qualifications, such as a teacher a social worker, a nurse, a psychologist or "extreme personal qualifications". Ms Gisela Cornelius of Outlaw, one of the organisations in the Sligo area which at the moment has just two children in its care said she is qualified as a social worker and teacher.
Ireland is only one of a number of countries to which the German social services refer problem children. According to the social scientist, there are greater numbers in other European countries such as Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Denmark. The schemes send children as far as Canada, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.
It is clear that, whatever problems there were in the past, the organisations involved in fostering are anxious to regularise and harmonise their operations. An umbrella body with the initials AIM has been set up, and the groups ar«MDBO»e «MDNM»trying to reach agreement on standards and quality.
But the organisations are, to an extent, in competition with each other, and may also differ among themselves on matters of ideology and policy, so agreement may not come easily.