A male asylum seeker is to remain in a facility for children despite Tusla believing him to be an adult, Dublin District Court has heard.
An inquiry into his age, due to start on Tuesday, was adjourned because he could not be brought to court.
Deirdre Lynch, for the asylum seeker, told the court “he needs to be present” to instruct her through an interpreter and to be able to follow proceedings properly.
She told Judge Vincent Deane how her instructing solicitor had on Friday contacted the facility where the young person was being accommodated to request he be brought to the court on Tuesday.
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Though this provided 48 hours’ notice, the message was not received until Monday, which was insufficient notice for the authorities charged with transporting him to court.
Counsel for Tusla, requesting as early a date as possible be set for the inquiry, said this was “a really urgent application”.
He said the young person was “placed in a children’s facility in circumstances where the agency has deemed him ineligible for services”.
Tusla applied to the court on March 19th for an inquiry under the Childcare Act, 1991, into the age of the young person who arrived into Ireland as an unaccompanied asylum seeker last year.
Under section 32 of the Act, a court is obliged to “make due inquiry as to the age of the person” who is the subject of the application.
“The age presumed or declared by the court to be the age of that person shall, until the contrary is proved, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to be the true age of that person,” it says.
Tusla planned to call “six or seven” witnesses, including from outside the jurisdiction, and would need a number of weeks to organise these, it said in March.
As it became clear the inquiry could not proceed on Tuesday, Tusla’s counsel said it was a “most unfortunate” given witnesses “from a number of jurisdictions” were ready.
He agreed, however, that whatever the outcome, the findings of the inquiry should be “robust” and not vulnerable to challenge.
The young person remains under an interim care order, where a child is in the care of Tusla for not more than 28 days. The order expired on Tuesday and was extended for a further 28 days by the judge, who set down two days for the age inquiry, beginning on June 3rd.
