A place in a State-run centre has been found for a troubled 13year-old boy. It follows a warning from a High Court judge that the State must provide for the child when no places were available in a secure centre.
The boy has been in a residential unit (Unit A), which is not secure, for the past five years and is said to be making great progress. However, he has absconded several times in recent months and the unit had asked the District Court to order that he be placed, for a short time, in a secure centre.
However, two District Court judges who dealt with the case in January and earlier this month were unable to make the order as there was no place available in the secure centre. They sent the matter to the High Court.
A witness from Unit A said he believed the boy's deteriorating behaviour was due to his age, difficulties within his family and the unavailability of therapy, due to a resources problem, during recent months.
The case came before Mr Justice Kelly on Monday. The judge said the inability of the courts to make appropriate orders could not continue. He would consider making an order directing the State to provide such a place. If this was not done, he told lawyers for the child, they could seek to attach the Minister for Health and Children for contempt. He adjourned the matter to yesterday.
Yesterday, he was told by Mr David Bairnville, for the State, that while no place would be available in a secure centre until March 28th, another residential centre (Unit B), which could provide greater security than Unit A, was willing to take him.
Mr Justice Kelly said he would send the boy to Unit B for two weeks, after which he could return to Unit A.
