Few would disagree with Mr Justice Kelly when he describes as a scandal the State's failure to provide secure and high-support accommodation for children who need it. He is the latest in a long line of judges who have made that point.
Indeed it has not only been a scandal but a great mystery to the public that, year after year, decade after decade, judges are being told there is nowhere to send children who cannot be contained in a more open setting, and that nothing has been done about it.
In reality, however, it is not a great mystery at all. If the family fails or is not able to meet the needs of a child, a whole regiment of social workers, psychologists, counsellors, child-care workers, gardai, lawyers and public servants will find themselves coping with the consequences.
It was recognised a long time ago that helping families who are running into difficulties in rearing their children can avert the need for that regiment of professionals to become involved in later years. But while this was recognised in such forums as the Task Force on Child Care Services, which published its final report nearly 20 years ago, it was largely ignored in practice by governments.
The consequence was that by failing to help families in trouble we have produced growing numbers of children who are out of control.
At the same time that the State was failing to help vulnerable families it was also failing to provide secure residential care for children who needed it.
That began to change with the Kilkenny incest inquiry, the Child Care Act and a growing acceptance by politicians and administrators that family support had to be given real, substantial help.
Health boards have been developing more neighbourhood youth projects to work with older children at risk, and they have been doing so successfully. The Minister of State for Children, Mr Frank Fahey, has announced support for 12 family support projects around the State and a number of other measures. He promised yesterday that two secure units would be built in Dublin - though in an interview with The Irish Times last week he described one of these units, in Portrane, as "high support" rather than secure.
In his statement yesterday, Mr Fahey recognised that while we need more secure accommodation than we have, the priority has to be to support families. Without that support, the number of uncontrollable youngsters coming before the courts will continue to overwhelm the system.