A father seeking permission to attend the matches of his two young sons in State care, another hoping to reinstate Skype arrangements and a mother who did not phone her children for 10 days at Christmas were among cases at the Dublin District Family Court yesterday.
Last week, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter commenced legislation to allow limited reporting of childcare and family law cases for the first time.
Yesterday, president of the District Court Judge Rosemary Horgan was told there were issues with access to two young boys in State care.
The boys, whose parents were not from Ireland, were in care for over three years, and were due to be returned to their parents next year.
Access was to be gradually increased from supervised to unsupervised. Counsel for the Child and Family Agency said they had no safety concerns, but one of the boys was anxious that a supervisor be present. She said a psychologist had been appointed to work with the children. Counsel for both parents, who also had an infant in their care, said the supervision was “very oppressive”.
'Sad history'
The mother's counsel acknowledged the case had a "long and sad history", but said her psychologist believed her problems had been caused by "postnatal depression".
He raised concerns that there was no clear plan to reintegrate the boys, who had been placed with foster parents of “a different cultural background”, into their family next year.
Counsel for the father said he would like to be able to attend the boys’ various matches, while counsel for the boys’ court-appointed guardian said access should take place at the children’s pace.
'Respectful relationship'
Judge Horgan noted the "hugely respectful relationship" between the boys' parents and foster parents. She also noted an assurance from the agency that access visits would be "lightly supported" rather than supervised. The case was nuanced, she said, and the parents' attendance at matches "might help normalise" their relationship with their children. She adjourned the case for six months.
In a separate case, counsel for the father of two young children in State care asked Judge Horgan to reinstate access via Skype. The court heard both parents were living outside the State and one was ill.
After negotiation, the Child and Family Agency agreed to two Skype sessions from the foster parents’ home and two emails on the children’s progress before the next hearing of the case in February.
Video link
Judge Horgan said the Courts Service could facilitate the father giving evidence via video link on the next occasion.
In a case before Judge Sinéad Ní Chúlacháin yesterday, a mother explained how access to her sons had stopped because her local child contact centre had closed before Christmas. She had been seeing her sons, one with a physical impairment and one with a psychological disorder, under the supervision of the centre. They were in the custody of their father and there was now a disagreement about which organisation to retain to supervise access in the future. In evidence, the father said the mother had made no effort to see the boys over Christmas and didn't phone for 10 days, which had upset the older boy.
