The Northern Area Health Board and the manager of a special care unit have been accused of attempting to criminalise a 12-year-old seriously disturbed boy.

Ms Róisín Shortall, (Lab, Dublin North-West) a member of the health board, said the health authorities had shown themselves to be "utterly incompetent"..

In an angry address to the Dáil she said that too many children with special care needs were being "met with rejection, dysfunction, incompetence and uninterest by the State".

On Wednesday the High Court ruled that the boy be moved from Ballydowd Special Care Unit for disturbed children to a remand centre for 21 days, because Ballydowd could not meet his needs.

Ms Shortall, who is also a member of the Eastern Regional Health Authority, described this case as a "shameful and sorry episode" because the child, who had no criminal history, would now be with seven other boys whose average age is almost 15, who all had criminal convictions.

Even more scandalous, however, was that a system that was supposed to care for dysfunctional children was itself dysfunctional. Condemning the two-year-old state-of-the-art Ballydowd unit, which had cost €12.7 million, Ms Shortall said it had "utterly failed" to provide the service for which it was intended. It was a 24-place unit but had never had more than eight children.

The Minister of State for Health, Mr Brian Lenihan, said he had already asked the chief executive officer of the ERHA for a report about the case.

He would certainly raise the issue with the health board but he was not responsible for the board's operation.

He had been informed that Ballydowd was undergoing refurbishment and its capacity was reduced, but it was expected to be fully operational by February.