A toddler taken into emergency care last month was returned to her mother last night after the Child and Family Agency withdrew an application for an interim care order.
Following a hearing that sat on three separate occasions over three days, Judge Brendan Toale, at the Dublin District Family Court, made a supervision order for six months, which allows the agency to visit the family home at will.
The girl was taken into emergency care by gardaí in March.
Giving evidence last week, a garda said he visited the toddler’s home with social workers from the agency at their request, shortly before 1pm on a day last month. He found the toddler in dirty clothes and with greasy hair, sitting on the floor with toys everywhere.
The mother was “slurring her words and had glassy eyes” and there was a glass of lager on the table in front of her, he said. Her partner, who was in loco parentis, was also intoxicated.
He said he told them he would be taking the child into emergency care.
The mother said she was happy for the child to go because she “needed to get her head straight”, the garda said. The child was removed.
The garda said the mother had 57 convictions against her, 23 involving alcohol, but only one since the baby was born. She had also been homeless, but now had a house.
The mother agreed she had been drinking, but denied being intoxicated. Her partner denied drinking. They both opposed the extension of an interim care order.
Binge drinker
Giving evidence, a social worker said she had called gardaí after the mother had phoned her and said she needed help and could not cope. She said the mother was a binge drinker, and when she was drinking there were concerns for her child’s welfare and safety. When sober, she was able to look after the baby.
The social worker also agreed she never saw the couple drinking when she called on visits to the house, but said she had received reports of drinking from a community agency working with the family.
“It is very clear they love the child. I think they need help,” the social worker said.
The court heard there had been a child protection plan in place prior to the emergency care order, which included the child getting a place in a creche and being brought to a dietitian and the mother attending alcohol addiction services.
A second social worker, now in charge of the case, said he was concerned that the mother had not accepted she had a problem with alcohol.
“She says she has a drink now and then, but not a drinking problem,” he said.
A solicitor for the mother asked if one of the grounds for the interim care order was the mother’s failure to acknowledge her addiction. The social worker said acknowledgment was a “key factor”.
“So unless and until mother acknowledges in your language a problem of your definition, and deals with it in a manner you deem appropriate, the agency will continue to apply for a care order?” the solicitor asked.
“Yes,” the social worker said.
When the case returned to court yesterday afternoon, the interim care order application was withdrawn.
The couple agreed they did not need to be served with papers for a supervision order application and did not give evidence.
