Eight of the nine centres in the Dublin area which accommodate about 180 separated children seeking asylum, are not registered to operate or provide accommodation for children, it has emerged. Carl O'Brien, Social Affairs Correspondent, reports.
The Irish Times reported earlier this week that a Dublin centre, which accommodates about 24 children under 17 who are seeking asylum, failed to meet the standards necessary for it to be registered a year ago.
During this time care staff at the unit, which is funded by the HSE, have expressed concern over missing children, rape allegations and violence within the unit.
The HSE confirmed yesterday that seven other centres which accommodate separated children are also unregistered. It was unable to say whether their use was illegal or in breach of legislation which obliges all residential centres for children to be registered.
The 1991 Child Care Act prohibits establishing any unregistered children's residential centre and requires that no person should take charge of such a centre. The maximum penalty is a €1,260 fine or a one-year jail sentence, or both.
The seven centres accommodate children aged 17 to 18 years of age. The HSE was unable to say if they had been inspected by its registration inspection service or what standards, if any, applied to them. Childcare workers say they should be subject to the national standards for children's residential centres.
A HSE spokesman said new guidance notes were being developed which would draw on the national standards for children in residential care for these seven centres.
The Minister for Children, meanwhile, says he is concerned at details regarding unregistered centres which were published in this newspaper and he has asked the HSE to supply him with a report. Brian Lenihan said he understood that the HSE and the proprietor of the residential unit at the centre of the article had a plan to address the issues highlighted and to ensure the centre reached requisite standards.
In the meantime, he said, a group including the HSE, his office and the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service was reviewing services for unaccompanied minors.
Campaign groups such as the Children's Rights Alliance have called on the Government to end the "two-tier" approach to children in care which they say discriminates between Irish children and separated children seeking asylum.
Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan has also criticised the "inferior" care provided to asylum-seeking children.
In a report to the UN's committee on the rights of the child in Geneva this week, she said she was struck by the "stark" difference between a unregistered hostel and a registered care centre after visiting them in recent months.
The registered centre, which accommodated six children, had four qualified childcare workers and had a homely feel where children had room and space to play. The unregistered hostel, however, accommodated 24 children, yet just two care staff were on duty, one of whom was trained.
In her submission she wrote: "The inferior care provided to separated children seeking asylum is unacceptable and places the State in breach of its obligation to prevent discrimination under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Convention on Human Rights."