I thank the Chair for allowing me raise this issue. I have been a public representative since 1984 and have handled many, cases, both in the House and outside, of injustice and infringements by official bodies. I remind the House that for a long time I was involved with the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace. I was involved in the Birmingham Six and other famous cases in the UK. However, I have never witnessed a case which so sickens me as the manner in which a child's well-being has been handled by the Eastern Health Board.
I pay generous tribute to the Minister who has listened very carefully to me on more than one occasion. This is an extraordinary case which illustrates a major problem in child care legislation. It shows, for example, that there is a need for a family advocate to support families who find themselves in crisis and pitted against the might of health boards.
In this case a family sought help from the Eastern Health Board. They accepted there was a problem – this was never in question. However, the family ended up not getting the help it sought but losing a child they loved. The mother and father of the child went to the Eastern Health Board because they felt a problem existed. They sought counselling. Instead of getting counselling, their child has been in the "care" of the Eastern Health Board since Christmas Eve 1996 when officials of the board used the Garda Síochána to enter the house with force and take the child away. There are two other children in this case.
There are many facts in the case which give me reason for concern, namely, the manner in which the health board dealt with the family in the first instance; the extraordinary manner in which the child was taken and the force used on that Christmas Eve; the number of movements of the child when she first came into the care of the health board; the contradictory and extraordinary versions of the story of the child given to different members of the Eastern Health Board over a period, including myself, in response to questions raised by members of the board about her welfare and the facts of the case; and the extraordinary manner in which the Eastern Health Board has been handling the fostering of the child.
Last year the grandparents of the child sought to have her placed in their foster care. This was rejected on the basis they were "too old" and in poor health. The grandmother of the child is a very sprightly and fine woman who works in a nursing home and cares for her own family. There is no doubt but that she would make a very fine foster mother for her own grandchild. The grandfather of this child is a CE scheme supervisor, dealing on occasions with very difficult young men. He has had a heart by-pass operation but there are many people in the State who have had such operations and who go on to lead full and active lives.
After my first contact with the Minister of State Deputy Fahey late last year, the question of foster care by the grandparents was reactivated, and I thank the Minister for that. However, the Eastern Health Board has behaved disgracefully ever since. Documents which were posted to the Eastern Health Board were mysteriously lost or went astray in the post. A further application form for the child's fostering was lodged earlier this year.
When this issue began to come to the boil again in recent times, there was correspondence between the Minister of State and me and between the parents and other senior political figures in the State.
An official from the Eastern Health Board visited the grandparents earlier this month and told them that they were wasting their time, the board knew all about the grandfather's health and they might as well save themselves the money and withdraw from the case. The grandparents were distraught, they succumbed to this bully tactic and they gave up in despair.
They have, however, reactivated their application as of last week. Professionals outside the Eastern Health Board, who have discussed the matter of the fostering of A.K. and the suitability of the grandparents in that regard with me and the grandparents, are fully convinced that the grandparents have the capacity and are suitable to deal with this child.
The reality in this sad case is that the Eastern Health Board cannot and should not be allowed to continue to operate as a sole agent in the case. I do not believe the reactivated foster care application can be handled by the health board. The health board has operated in a way which prejudices its capacity to be objective. Certainly the health board will not convince me, the child's family or anybody who brings an objective view to bear on this case that it can handle the case objectively or dispassionately. I would ask the Minister of State to ensure that some outside body oversees the manner in which this foster care request is handled.
