The case of a baby girl who was taken into care following her birth, her mother having been taken to hospital with a drug overdose while pregnant, is one of the cases contained in the latest report of the Child Care Law Reporting Project.
Risks posed to children through drug and alcohol abuse, poverty and homelessness again feature prominently in the fifth volume of reports produced by the project which is published today.
A full care order was granted in the case of the baby girl, both of whose parents were drug addicts and had resorted to criminality to fund their drug habit.
The parents had moved to Ireland from another jurisdiction where their older child, a boy, had previously been taken into care and adopted after the parents fled with the child in contravention of a protection order.
Police involvement was required to track them down and, when found, they were under the influence of illicit substances with a “strong smell suggestive of heroin smoke” in an unventilated room. The baby was extremely pale and dirty and hungry. He was placed in emergency foster care and subsequently placed in a closed adoption.
Pregnant
When the mother became pregnant again, the couple moved to Ireland over fears that this baby was also likely to be taken into care in the other jurisdiction.
However, while still pregnant, the mother was admitted to hospital for a drug overdose. The homeless accommodation in which the couple were living was found to be “quite dirty”. A pre-birth conference found the likely risks to the baby were very high and an interim care order was made.
The baby girl, who was born in Ireland, was subject to a number of interim care orders over a period of 18 months. During this time the parents had access to their baby five days a week and attended a drug treatment centre.
Source: Pamela Duncan, Irish Times, 18/03/14
Safer Student Nights
eBulletin
Poll
