Dan Neville
Ceist:355 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Health and Children when it is planned to end the practice of placing non-offending children in facilities for offenders. [26217/03]
Written Answers. - Children in Care.
As the Deputy is aware, with the substantial increase in the number of health board high sup port and special care places for children who need more intensive intervention and with the development of other services, this practice by the High Court has greatly diminished in recent years and has almost been eliminated.
There are more than 120 high support and special care places compared to 17 in 1996. These include a five place regional special care unit for boys in the Mid-Western Health Board area which was completed recently and is now in a position to accept placements. During this period approximately €40 million in capital funding has been made available through the health boards to put in place these additional high support and special care places. In addition, intensive community based services have been put in place to provide for the needs of this group of children, for example, the youth advocacy pilot projects in the Northern Area Health Board and the Western Health Board which commenced last year.
While High Court orders of detention are currently required by health boards to detain non-offending children with challenging behaviour in special care units Parts 2, 3 and 11 of the Children Act, 2001 provide a statutory scheme for the placement of such children in special care units. Such placements under the Act will be on foot of a special care order made by the District Court in appropriate circumstances, as a last resort and for as short a period of time as possible. I am pleased to inform the Deputy that the order commencing Part 11 of the Children Act, 2001, which places the special residential services board on a statutory footing, came into effect on 7 November 2003. This in turn should allow for the introduction of Parts 2 and 3 of the Children Act, 2001 by early next year.
It is envisaged that, taken together, these measures will obviate the need for applications to be made to the High Court for orders for the detention of non-offending children in need of special care or protection.