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Emergency accommodation fears for Clare teenager 'who can barely boil an egg'
Boy, 17, in State care will turn 18 in the coming weeks
Ennis Courthouse | FILE PHOTO
Reporter:
Gordon Deegan
10 Feb 2024 1:01 PM
A judge has stated that he is “terrified” that a 17-year old boy in State care “who can barely boil an egg” will end up in emergency accommodation in a hotel on reaching his 18th birthday next month.
At the Family Law Court in Ennis, Judge Alec Gabbett made his comments when expressing his frustration at efforts by TUSLA to provide after-care and suitable accommodation for the teenage boy after he turns 18.
The boy is currently under the care of TUSLA, the Child and Family Agency (CFA) and Judge Gabbett noted that TUSLA is currently spending €6,000 per month on accommodation for him with two care workers providing round-the-clock care for him.
Judge Gabbett said he wants TUSLA to continue the fund the teenager’s care at his current placement after he turns 18 until suitable alternative accommodation can be found. “He is very happy there…we can’t throw this boy out,” he commented.
In May of last year, Judge Gabbett ordered medical intervention for the teenager after being told, at that time, he had only had one shower in the first four months of the year.
Solicitor for TUSLA, Kevin Sherry said the teenager is now on a Focus Ireland waiting list for accommodation when he turns 18.
The told the court that the TUSLA after-care service are “trying their level best to finalise an after-care plan for the teenager”.
Judge Gabbett said: “This boy hasn’t attended school in three or four years, can barely boil an egg, was barely able to wash himself last January and yet we are proposing that he live independently?”
He added: “The boy’s independent living skills are not there at all."
Judge Gabbett said that the teenager “is crippled by a severe emotional disorder”. He said: “He is not in education and never will be.”
Judge Gabbett said that the boy’s 18th birthday next month “is coming like an express train” and that he won’t have any jurisdiction over the boy’s care once he turns 18. “Once he turns 18 technically he could walk out the door and there is nothing the CFA could do about it.”
He said: “The boy is being sent out into the world to live in a Focus Ireland house with very little support.”
The judge commented that he was still “in the dark” about the level of support that will be provided to the boy who, he said, “has fallen between the cracks in the system”.
The judge added that this is because he doesn't meet the HSE’s “very high threshold” of meeting the criteria to be diagnosed with a complex disability in order for the HSE to care for him.
Judge Gabbett remarked that the responsibility lies for the teenager with the CFA as it appears that the HSE “want to run a mile from it - they don’t want to touch it with a barge pole”.
Judge Gabbett adjourned the case to next Thursday indicating that he needs to hear from the CFA “where this boy is going to going to go”.
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