The Mid-Western Health Board last night defended its handling of the girl's case.
The girl, who was missing from care, was arrested on foot of a High Court order at 9.40 p.m. in the company of a friend in her native city on Tuesday. She is now accommodated at Oberstown Detention Centre in Lusk, Co Dublin.
The girl first came to the attention of local gardai in November 1999, when officers raided an apartment used as a brothel and found her working as a prostitute, then aged 15.
The case was reported to the MWHB and she was housed in Oberstown for five weeks last March, before being transferred to a supervised care plan under the custody of the MWHB. Her mother died from cancer this year.
In July, a revised care plan for the girl was accepted by the High Court but shortly afterwards the girl's behaviour deteriorated and she began absconding regularly from the care facility.
In a statement to The Irish Times last night, a spokesman for the MWHB said the board was "actively and vigorously" involved in the girl's case and it was regularly reviewed.
"Every possibility was exhausted, including shared care, before professional staff recommended that an application should be made for a detention order."
The spokesman added that a multi-agency conference on December 8th decided to take the case back to the High Court. "However, the case had already been listed by the judge and, accordingly, the board's application was overtaken by the judge's action."
The board has also stressed that a care worker, seen drinking with the girl in a local pub, was never an employee of the MWHB.
According to the spokesman, the withdrawal of the religious orders from childcare, the community resistance to new facilities in their areas and the shortage of staff had affected the board's work. The MWHB was currently developing five residential childcare centres which would provide 25 places.