A High Court judge yesterday said he could not understand why the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, had still not decided whether to appeal his orders on units for at-risk children. Last week, the judge directed the Minister to take all steps necessary to build and bring into operation several high-support and special care units for more than 40 troubled children in the seven health board areas outside the Eastern Health Board.
After finding there was culpable slippage by the Department of Health in its efforts to build such units, Mr Justice Kelly last week granted injunctions to a number of troubled children.
The courts have had to send many at-risk children, with no convictions, to State remand centres or to prison because of the lack of appropriate facilities.
When granting the injunctions, the judge declared that the continuing failure of the State to meet the needs of at-risk children was a scandal. He noted that, even with the injunctions, the last of the units would not be operational until 2002, a full seven years after the children's constitutional right to proper care and accommodation was established. At last week's hearing, the judge put a stay on his order for a week so that the Minister could decide whether to appeal. When the case came before the court again yesterday, Mr Paul O'Higgins SC, for the Minister, said he had no instructions yet regarding an appeal. The Minister was considering the court's judgment and a decision was expected shortly. The Minister intended to carry out the works stipulated by the court, but he was seeking a continuation of the stay on the court's order.
Mr Gerry Durcan SC, for the applicant children, said it was unfortunate that they did not know one way or the other whether the Minister would appeal. This would cause difficulty for a number of legal cases brought by other children. Mr Justice Kelly said he would not continue the stay. The Minister had had a week to consider his position and counsel still could not say when a decision would be taken. In the meantime, the judge said, he was anxious that all appropriate steps be taken to meet the children's needs. He could not understand why a week was not long enough to decide whether to appeal.
Given the urgency of the situation, it seemed any continuation of the stay would only bring about further delays. Therefore, the judge said, he would lift the stay and his order was effective as of now. The judge also lifted the stay on his award of costs of the action to the children.
