Hostel accommodation is all the State can currently offer to a brain-damaged teenager who needs to be put into a rehabilitation centre, a court was told yesterday.
The youth, who is 17, has been deemed unfit to plead after having suffered traumatic head injuries in a car accident nearly three years ago.
Due to his medical condition, sending him to a conventional detention centre is unsuitable, the Dublin Children's Court has heard.
The South Western Area Health Board had identified that one solution was to refer him to a care facility in England, but declined to pursue this route because it cost too much to fund, the court had also heard.
Judge Angela Ní Chondúin said something must be done to get the youth the care he needed.
Family members have complained that the health board has done little to help him after he was released from a high-support unit and said they want the youth to be put into a rehabilitation centre in view of his mental health.
Since he was let out of the Ballydowd Special Care Unit he has been arrested for criminal damage and on assault charges.
A psychiatrist has held that, because of the youth's intellectual problems, which have been compounded by the head injuries he sustained in the car accident, he is not fit to plead, the court was also told.
Counsel for the health board said yesterday that it was now willing to re-examine the case.
Judge Ní Chondúin granted bail on condition that the youth presents himself for hostel accommodation every evening and adjourned the case until Tuesday.