A brain-damaged teenager who spent five weeks in prison during the year because a health board was unable to find appropriate accommodation for him is back in prison, it has emerged.
The 18-year-old, who suffered brain damage from a joyriding incident around three years ago, is being held in Cloverhill Prison in relation to a charge of assault against his sister.
The teenager, estimated by some experts to have the mental capacity of a seven or eight-year-old, had spent some time living in an apartment funded by the health board and with the support of a care worker.
The boy's solicitor, Ms Sarah Molloy, said she had written to the teenager's health board seeking funding for an appropriate unit in Britain which would offer security and therapeutic care.
"He needs something secure and there is nothing in the State which provides that," she said.
"The fact that a psychiatrist, who assessed him when he was arrested, said he was psychotic and wasn't in a fit state to plead at the time shows the state he has been in."
Although a health board's duty of care for children ceases when a child becomes an adult, the Minister of State with responsibility for children, Mr Brian Lenihan, stated in written correspondence earlier this year that services would be provided for the teenager beyond his 18th birthday.
A spokesman for the South Western Area Health Board said yesterday that health authorities would continue to support the teenager.
"The board can state that funding of any placement, whether in Ireland or the UK, has not been an issue in this case," he said.
"The board is committed to continuing to work with the individual in this case and his representatives in the context of his care plan and what is in his best interests."
Father Peter McVerry, a campaigner for young homeless people, said the teenager's story once again highlighted the lack of appropriate services for vulnerable people in the State.
"There is a tendency to put people in prison when there is nothing else available, whether they are homeless or mentally handicapped.
"It's wrong, because they are not suitable and it allows authorities to get off the hook by finding something, even if it is utterly inappropriate," he told The Irish Times.
The 18-year-old is originally from a disadvantaged community in Dublin's inner city. His father, a chronic alcoholic, is homeless, while his mother died from cancer last year.
He has been getting into trouble since the mid-1990s.
