Health boards placed 53 disturbed children in their care in the custody of a private security company which housed them in rented premises never formally inspected by board inspectors over a two-year period until this week, the High Court has heard.
This was done in the absence of a written contract between the health boards and the company, and in circumstances where the health boards' involvement with the children appeared confined to weekly or twice weekly visits to the units by social workers and review meetings, Mr Justice Kelly said.
The courts, which made orders committing many of these children to health board care, were never informed the children were being looked after by a commercial entity and the Minister for Health and Children was also unaware.
It also emerged yesterday children in care of health boards in the Eastern Regional Authority Area are being housed in 32 other units which are not operated by health boards. The court was told it was not possible to recruit people with childcare qualifications.
Mr Justice Kelly directed the three health boards in the ERHA region (which were said to have placed children in the care of the private company) to explain urgently how and why this situation had arisen.
He believed no other High Court judge had been informed children were being placed with a private company which had no statutory responsibility for them and wanted to know why.
The judge was dealing with the case of a troubled 13-yearold boy, who is in the care of the Northern Area Health Board, and was until Tuesday last in one of nine units operated in Cos Wicklow and Kildare by Community Childrens Centres Ltd (CCCL), a private company.
Since Tuesday, the boy has been placed in a premises staffed by five psychiatric nurses - all responsible to the NAHB - and security staff. Yesterday, the judge directed he remain there but returned the case to today when he said he wanted to hear evidence of additional security precautions and greater co-ordination in the provision of his care.
The judge also said he wanted the health boards to tell him next Tuesday under what authority they sought to delegate their duties to a commercial entity.
The boy, who was allegedly sexually abused in the past, is described as utterly alone in the world. Last weekend, he escaped from a CCCL premises, stole the unit's minibus and crashed it, sustaining minor injuries.
While dealing with the child's case on Wednesday, the judge learned of the involvement of Secureways Ltd and CCCL in caring for children.
Ms Marguerite Bolger, for CCCL, said her client had no involvement regarding what information was passed from the health boards to the court.
Mr Colm Smith, a director of Secureways and CCCL, said he was a former private investigator and had no childcare qualifications. Mr Smith said the health boards had never expressed concerns about how CCCL ran its centres.
