Judge allows children in care to take holiday abroad

Two young children in interim care are to be allowed to travel abroad on holiday with their foster carers after a judge at the Dublin District Family Court dispensed with the need for their parents’ permission.

The children’s parents had refused permission, fearing the “filthy rich” foster carers were influencing the children, particularly their daughter.

“She has things: a horse, lambs named after her . . . they are showing her a life that no one could provide,” the mother said.

The young children were taken into care in early 2014 on an interim basis.

The reasons were not outlined in court, but they include “serious allegations of abuse” which the parents have vigorously denied.

The court was told the foster carers, who were sourced through a private foster agency, booked a holiday for themselves, the foster children and other family members. The parents were not informed until early this month, and they refused permission.

Access visits

The foster carers told the children of the holiday and told them their parents were not consenting.

The court also heard the younger of the two children had been refusing to attend access visits with her parents since earlier this year.

She had said she did not want to “go back to Ma and Da because they are poor” and her foster carers “are rich and have loads of things”.

The children’s mother said she felt in her heart if her daughter had a break from the carers while they took the holiday, she would resume attending access visits.

She said her son had run into an access visit and asked whether he and his sister could go on holiday. He described a house facing a beach with two jacuzzis and big swimming pools, she said.

“That’s not normal . . . I’ve asked for them to have a normal life,” she said.

She and her husband had come under pressure to change their minds about permission over the holiday, the mother said.

She thought highly of the foster mother, but the family was “filthy rich” and she believed her daughter was being pulled away from her. She was also angry she and her husband had been “made to look like the bad guys”.

Excited

The

Child and Family Agency

solicitor apologised to the parents and acknowledged the matter had not been handled correctly.

The social worker and the court-appointed guardian said the children should be allowed to take the holiday. They were looking forward to it and were very excited.

The social worker said the foster carers were doing everything in their power to encourage the girl to attend access visits with her parents. She also said the girl “wouldn’t be riding ponies” on access visit days, and she did not believe lifestyle was an issue.

Judge Brendan Toale said he accepted the parents' views were genuinely held and not motivated by "spite or other unworthy motivations".

He said the interests of the children had not been well served by their unnecessary involvement in the holiday proposal.

He said the court was being asked to “pick up the pieces of the debacle”, and it was “reprehensible”.

There had been a systemic failure and a failure of professional standards, and he believed what happened had exacerbated the concerns and suspicions of the parents.

He said it was in the best interests of the children the holiday go ahead and ordered that the children were to be informed about it appropriately, and it was not to be presented as “a victory or a defeat for anyone”.