The Eastern Health Board will provide an additional 30 emergency places for out-of-home children, it has been announced. It will also provide a reception centre where such children can receive a range of services, including emergency accommodation, on a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week basis.
This follows the presentation of a report on child prostitution in Dublin to a meeting of the board last night, which suggested that the problem was serious.
It also comes some weeks after The Irish Times reported that a number of homeless children in the Dublin area had been unable to obtain emergency accommodation, and had no option but to seek help through the Garda and hospitals.
Twenty of the new places will be located in two new residential units, one for children under 12 and one for those between 12 and 18. Ten will be with special emergency carer families recruited and trained to provide emergency care at short notice.
The reception centre is aimed particularly at dealing with the problem of child prostitution in Dublin. The centre will provide outreach services, as well as access to food, shelter, showers and, where necessary, drug treatment, medical assistance, counselling and child guidance.
The report on child prostitution was leaked in the media prior to the meeting, and the EHB chief executive, Mr P.J. Fitzpatrick, said he very much regretted the leak, which had not been done by any official of the board. He appealed for the issue to be reported in a manner which did not further exploit children, and which focused on the perpetrator rather than the child.