*Photograph: Joe Buckley
A HEALTHY teenager in State care must spend the weekend in a major hospital “as a last resort” after Gardaí were unable to transport him to a TUSLA emergency placement in Dublin due to the motorway fuel protests, a court has heard.
At the Family Law Court, a senior social care worker with TUSLA the Child and Family Agency (CFA) said that the fourteen year old has been accepted as “a social admission” to the hospital where he is to remain for the weekend.
The boy has already spent two nights at the hospital after Gardaí involved special powers under the Childcare Act after his mother said that she could no longer care for him.
The TUSLA social care worker said that the agency ‘out of hours’ had identified an emergency placement in Dublin on Wednesday night “but due to the protests and the current crisis on the motorways Gardaí were unable to transport to the Dublin area”.
She said that the placement in Dublin involved “a hotel room with staff” and the boy was instead admitted to the hospital as a “social admission”.
In court, Judge Adrian Harris on Friday described the boy’s continuing placement in the hospital as “untenable and entirely unsatisfactory” and urged TUSLA to find an alternative placement for the boy “as a matter of urgency”.
On Thursday, Judge Harris granted TUSLA an eight day Emergency Care Order (ECO) for the boy commenting that “the parents have put their hands upon and have tried everything but feel that matters have escalated beyond their control at the moment”.
Judge Harris adjourned the case to Friday to get an update on the teenager’s accommodation.
The TUSLA worker told Judge Harris that TUSLA arranged for the social admission to the hospital “as a last resort”.
Solicitor for TUSLA, Kevin Sherry told Judge Harris today that the hospital has confirmed that the boy can remain at the hospital over the weekend “and that has been deemed unsatisfactory by the court and I can concur with those sentiments”.
He said, “Despite endeavours by the agency, there has been no alternatives sourced”.
The senior TUSLA care worker said that every avenue has been explored and exhausted and escalated up to the senior management to get the teenager an alternative placement.
The senior TUSLA social worker said that the mother contacted the Gardaí this week after her son allegedly broke down the door to her ‘safe space’ in the home, her bedroom “and subsequently thrashed the room looking for the phone his mother was refusing to give to her son”.
She said that he also caused damage to other parts of the home.
The TUSLA worker said that the mother had confiscated the phone a number of months ago from her son after he posted videos of certain content on the phone.
The TUSLA worker agreed with solicitor, Kevin Sherry for the CFA that the boy’s mobile phone “seems to be the trigger for the latest incident”.
She said, “That is correct. Her son was asking for the phone while she was in the property. The phone was taken away for a reason and she was refusing to hand it back”.
The TUSLA social care worker said that the boy has located the phone and has it with him in the hospital but is not able to access it.
The TUSLA worker said that Gardaí invoked Section 12 of the Childcare Act “after the mother felt in fear for her own safety in the home and felt that she wasn’t able to provide safe care to her son”.
The social care worker said that fresh attempts will be made on Monday for an alternative placement for the teenager.
Judge Harris adjourned the case to next Wednesday.
