The Child and Family Agency (CFA) has secured a temporary respite placement for a teenage girl who had been staying at a hostel which the High Court heard was unsuitable and unsafe for her.
The girl has been the victim of two serious sexual assaults by older men, which took place outside of the hostel she had been placed at during the time she was staying there. Those allegations are being investigated by gardaí.
At the High Court on Thursday Mr Justice Michael McGrath was told the 15-year-old, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had been moved by the CFA to a temporary respite placement well away from where she had been placed.
The CFA, represented by Aoife McNickle BL said that the agency – also known as Tusla – is currently looking to find the girl a permanent place to stay. Counsel added that her client had had plans in motion to find the teenager a permanent placement away from the hostel for some time.
Counsel for the girl, Ronan Munro SC, said his side was happy that she had been moved, which he said had taken the urgency out of the case.
Concerns
Arising out of concerns for her health and safety the teenager, through her mother, brought High Court proceedings aimed at securing a safe residential placement for her.
The action arose over the girl’s placement in the hostel in July by the CFA. She was the only female at the premises, along with several older, homeless, teenage males.
Her lawyers had claimed that some of the others staying at the hostel have engaged in anti-social behaviour and have problems with intoxicants.
The court heard that the girl, who for various reasons cannot live with family members, has been the subject of interim care orders and had been placed in foster homes.
Those placements had broken down, resulting in her being placed in the hostel.
In her proceedings against the Child and Family Agency, The Ministers for Education and Children, Ireland and the Attorney General she seeks various orders and declarations including an order that she be provided with a safe place to stay.
She also seeks declarations that she be provided with proper educational facilities and that her human rights have been breached.
The case will be mentioned before the High Court in October.