Judge Conal Gibbons rejected an application from the Health Service Executive to jail a woman after she breached an interim care order, according to a case study included in the report.
The order required that she only have access to her children under supervision by a social worker, but the woman turned up at her mother's home, where her children were in care, and demanded to see them.
She told Judge Gibbons that she was on methadone and also drank to excess while watching TV in her room.
"Do you go to your mother's after a few cans?" Judge Gibbons asked her. "A few times, I miss me kids. They're away a long time," the woman replied.
She told the judge she did not have a good relationship with the social worker involved in her case and did not like him.
"We're not here to like each other, you don't have to like me," the judge said. "You're all right," the woman replied.
The case was adjourned so that the woman could talk to her social worker and get legal representation. When the case resumed, the woman apologised for breaching her interim care order and said she had done so because it was the children's birthdays.
She said she would come to new access arrangements with the social worker and would never break her order again.
"The problem I have is that if the kids are in a placement with your mother and that is put at risk, the HSE will have to take them and put them with a stranger," Judge Gibbons said.
"That would be very troubling and have repercussions for the children. Having the children with your mother is second best until you get back on your feet. The best outcome for everyone is the children back with you."
The judge was told that the HSE was looking into residential programmes to help the woman overcome her drinking problems but most centres did not accept people who were on methadone.
He told the woman that she had to rebuild trust with the social workers and "put up with a bit of shadowing".
"You will find that as trust builds it will disappear," he said.
He warned her never to drink when on access with her children and discharged the application for committal.