The Government had directed that £1.5 million be allocated in the 1999 Estimates to the health boards to provide services for children at risk, it was disclosed at the High Court yesterday.
A total of £11 million has been provided for child care.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly was also told the Eastern Health Board has had difficulty finding staff to work with troubled children and has had to recruit in Scandinavia and Britain.
Getting the right person was vital because of the experiences of churches which run children's homes in the past, said Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, for the EHB.
"One person inadequately screened could do untold damage to these very vulnerable children."
Mr John Collins, principal officer in the child-care policy unit of the Department of Health and Children, said the allocation was in addition to £700,000 made available in 1998 for capital requirements for such children.
That sum has yet to be allocated because no specific written proposal for its use has been received from the health boards apart from a letter received on Tuesday from the Mid-Western Health Board. The Department has agreed the sum may be rolled over to 1999 if not spent.
Mr Collins was giving evidence on the second day of judicial review proceedings taken against the State and the Eastern Health Board by a 15-year-old boy being held in a remand unit because there is no suitable accommodation for him.
The boy is seeking an order directing the State to provide him with suitable accommodation. In court yesterday, Mr Collins said he was in his present post five months and had set up a group of senior health board managers to address the needs of children at risk.
He accepted the need for 15 to 20 high support places for such children as an interim measure before the opening of EHB units at Ballydowd, in 2000, and Portrane in 2001.
The EHB had advanced proposals, and £300,000 was allocated, to developing a "Step Down Facility", with five to six places. There was also potential for four further places at units in the Mid-Western and Southern Health Board areas.
Mr Collins said the EHB had indicated a major high-support unit as an interim measure was not feasible and had suggested the development of the SDF.
The EHB was also in discussions to find other options such as intensive fostering and funding.
The Minister had raised the needs of children at risk with all the health boards and they were asked to find a solution.
The Department believed the children's needs should be met and the health boards must take every reasonable measure to do so.
Mr Collins accepted there were no statistics on the numbers nationally requiring places in special units. He had requested such statistics.
In submissions, Mr MacEntee said the EHB was, given "enormous" problems, doing a creditable job for children. Traditionally, religious organisations and voluntary organisations had cared for such children but had withdrawn from the area.
The EHB had to ensure each person it employed to look after children was a proper and fit person. Police clearance had to be obtained and recruitment was slow.
The board had to learn how to structure care provision. Against great odds it recruited dedicated staff and set up two institutions which were so successful children did not want to leave them.
The board had also embarked on a radical plan to provide two further custom-built units which would be opened in 2000 and 2001. Undoubtedly, there was a time lag between children presenting for care and there being appropriate facilities for them but, in the face of appalling odds, the board had got on with the job.
He accepted there were not enough places for children but the board was doing all it reasonably could to rectify that. Stop-gap solutions were sanctioned before and had come hopelessly unstuck and the board was very sceptical of interim arrangements.
That was not to say the board did not have obligations to meet the interim needs of 15 to 20 children. Those needs would be met, counsel said.
Mr Gerry Durcan SC, for the boy, said the State had a constitutional obligation to meet the needs of children at risk. It could not sit by and wait to see what the health boards did.
How many judicial reviews were needed before it was realised these children were in real danger, he asked. The State had to put concrete proposals before the court regarding interim places for all the children.
The hearing resumes tomorrow.