The State has no secure residential treatment facilities for young heroin addicts who have also been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the Dublin Children's Court heard yesterday.
A 17-year-old boy who had been addicted to heroin for a number of years had also been diagnosed with having ADHD and attention deficit disorder, the court was told.
His probation officer said that the boy should not be sent to a residential treatment centre because he had been uncooperative and had failed to attend drug treatment at a day-care unit as previously ordered by the court.
The boy was considered to be at risk and had continued to cause further problems for his family, he said.
He also told Judge Anne Watkin that if the boy was granted bail, he could not take a place in the residential centre; there were no places available and he would have to go on a waiting list.
The boy's solicitor said that his client's behavioural problems and lack of co-operation were a caused by a mixture of medication he was taking for his condition and methadone, which he was taking to help overcome heroin addiction.
He said the boy needed to go to a secure residential treatment centre which could deal with both his heroin addiction and his behavioural disorders.
However, that would not be possible because there is no facility which could undertake such a task, the court was told. The boy, who had been held in custody, had applied for bail with the view of attending a residential drug treatment centre.
He had been charged with larceny and with interfering with a vehicle and was last week remanded in custody after he had skipped court twice. His parents had tried to convince him to go but he refused and just stayed in bed.
His mother later told the court that he made family life stressful, always told her lies and would not do anything for himself. "I do not know what he is getting up to," she said, "and when I asked him where he was, he told me to shut up."
Judge Watkin refused to grant bail because there were no places in the residential drug treatment centre and the boy had been unco-operative with the probation and welfare services.
She further remanded him in custody to Clover Hill prison for four weeks.