Young children including babies, are getting drawn into the criminal justice system because they are from at-risk families who do not have an out-of-hours social worker service to support them, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (Agsi) has said.
Delegates at the closing the session of Agsi’s annul conference in Athlone, Co Westmeath, were told that young children who need to be taken from their homes during times of family crisis are being accommodated overnight in Garda stations.
Sgt Willie Gleeson of the Agsi’s national executive told the conference while the Government had last year promised to launch an out of hours social work service, that pledge had led to nothing because of the recession.
He said when gardai were forced to invoke Section 12 of the Children’s Act, and remove children from their homes for their own safety, gardai cannot reach social workers outside regular office hours. This meant children were taken to hospitals by gardai to be cared for or were being accommodated in Garda stations.
“The gardai are left carrying the can and very often they are literally being left holding the baby,” Mr Gleeson told delegates.
“It’s unfair on the vulnerable young people and it’s unfair on gardai because we’re not trained or equipped to deal with these situations. It’s also creating a situation where gardai in uniforms are having to go to houses and involve themselves in family situations and it’s not ideal that young children should be drawn in contact like that with members of the force.”
Mr Gleeson said the Minister for Children Barry Andrews had promised to create an out of hours social work service but “then the Government woke from its slumber” and realised the extent of the recession.
He described as “inappropriate” another proposal currently being finalised which would involve a private company taking calls about at-risk children from gardai and then nominating short term foster families for them.
Mr Gleeson said it was a comprehensive social work service that was needed to offer short term care to at risk young people and to support their families in the longer term.
He told delegates that Agsi had lost track of the extent of the problem relating to gardai caring for children outside office hours.
“It is happening up and down the country so often that out members are no longer reporting the cases,” he said.
The conference heard calls from other delegates for improvements in the service An Garda Siochana provides when dealing with young children who have to be interviewed about crimes, either as witnesses or suspects.
Sgt Dominic Flynn representing the Longford-Westmeath division said special interview suites built with the needs of children in mind should be provided close to headquarter stations in all Garda divisions.
However, he said such suites should be provided away from stations. They could be used to interview the mentally impaired as well as children. While interview suites had been provided in Dublin, Letterkenny, Sligo and Cork they are yet to be provided in other mooted locations including Limerick, Cavan, Mullingar, Waterford and Galway.
Sgt Flynn also told delegates training was needed for Garda members in the area of specialist child interviewing skills. Agsi presented an excellence in policing award to Det Sgt Michael Moran, who is currently seconded to Interpol’s headquarters in Lyon, where he works in the trafficking in human beings section.
Mr Moran was centrally involved in the investigation into Canadian paedophile Christopher Neill. He was arrested in Thailand last year after Interpol unscrambled internet photographs of him abusing young boys.