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IT EMERGED THIS morning that a senior garda had been arrested for leaking information about two children who were temporarily removed from their families in late 2013.
The two children, a two-year-old boy from Athlone and a seven-year-old girl from Tallaght, were both members of the Roma community.
They were removed from their homes over concerns that the families they were staying with were not their biological families. In both cases, it was eventually determined that their parents were indeed were their biological parents.
In the case of Child T (Tallaght), DNA testing was used to prove parentage.
A report by the Children’s Ombudsman found that “ethnic profiling” was a factor in removal of Roma children.
Here’s what happened and why a garda has now been arrested:
Tallaght
In October 2013, a news story was making global headlines about a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl who had been found living with a Roma family in Greece.
The story prompted a woman living in Tallaght to contact a journalist through his TV show’s Facebook page over concerns she had about a blonde-haired girl living with a Roma family in the locality.
The journalist passed his concerns onto local gardaí who began to look into the matter. One garda was aware of ‘Child T’ because he had previously been assigned to one of her sisters.
Gardaí spoke to the principal at the Child T’s school and to the Department of Social Welfare. It emerged that the girl was officially registered under a different first name.
The confusion meant gardaí decided to visit the child’s home.
Upon visiting, they spoke to the parents and saw the seven-year-old with one garda officer commenting that she was was “strikingly different in appearance” from the rest of her family.
The mother of the child could not provide a birth certificate for the child. Gardaí contacted the Coombe Hospital where, again, there was confusion surrounding the child’s name.
Other family members and more gardai arrived in the interim.
A passport and birth certificate were then provided for Child T but gardai concluded that they were not sufficient because they could not be corroborated by the Coombe.
A decision was taken to place the child in the care of the HSE.
The following day, the Sunday World revealed that gardai were investigating the true identity of the girl.
The story became national news and DNA tests were ordered on the young child and her family.
Two days after the child was taken from her home, DNA tests confirmed her identity and she was returned to her family.
Timelines:
Athlone
In the case of the two-year-old boy in Athlone, previous concerns had been raised about the child a number of months previous.
A member of the public had raised concerns with the gardaí after seeing the child with “very blonde hair and the bluest eyes” with the family at a festival in Clare.
As the Maria story was making headlines, An Garda Síochána’s Missing Persons Bureau received an email tiled “Suspected Child Abduction” again mentioning the festival in Co Clare.
Gardaí tracked down the family and the case was transferred to Athlone Garda Station. Local gardaí made enquiries and visited the family.
As with the case in Tallaght, there were issues with gardaí verifying the birth certificate of the child in question, Child A. Certificates were provided but gardaí felt there were discrepancies.
The parents of the child agreed to come voluntarily to Athlone Garda Station.
Section 12 of the Child Care Act 1991 was enacted given a perceived flight risk. The child was then placed in the care of foster parents but was reported to be crying for his mother. He stayed with them overnight.
The following day, after the the child’s GP, Barnardos, and the HSE all agreed there were no doubts over the child’s parentage, he was returned to them.
“Ethnic profiling”
A report by the former Children’s Ombudsman Emily Logan made a range of recommendations into the handling of the both cases.
Each case were critically evaluated separately and were given their own set of recommendations.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald, and Garda Commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan all apologised to the families of two children.
The report also stated that An Garda Síochána must enhance its “cultural competence” in dealing with the Roma community.
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Can’t wait for the inevitable (cash-grab) tribunal into this fiasco is started, with zero accountability to follow.
Whenever it opens the nightmare of access and parking will begin, we have been attending St James Hosp for some weeks now and parking is just mental, I dread to think when the children’s Hosp opens the chaos that will follow.
@Eileen Kelly: and the green party will have a 10 euro charge to drive into the city by then
New parking: 575 will be paying visitor Spaces, 100 spaces will be CHI Social Care Guest Spaces and 319 spaces will be for Staff Parking.
@Ivan Genockey: $20
Rumour has it the children’s hospital will open in October 2054 and closed in 2056 due to being outdated
@Pat Barden: when tallaght hospital opened decades after the plans were drawn up, bed sizes had increased, and the doors needed to be resized. Cant wait to see the snag list on this new white elephant with potential costs of 2.4 billion being floated.
Well done to our Irish writers and our President Mr Higgins for speaking out against the slaughter of innocent lives in Palestine. Please continue to force your opposition to this sensless taking of life.
Anyone in the privelaged position of having access to public persuasion has a moral duty to speak out against this mass murder and not to remain silent.
The thoughts of a sick mind. Go get the help you obviously need.
@Mary Looners: How about the thousands of Palestinians murdered by the terrorist forces of Israel…The thousands murdered by the same Israeli terrorist forces in the refugee camps in Lebanon…Israel a country from lines drawn in the sand by the murderous British empire.
@Dissasociated Follower: Israel is looking for the Final Solution in Gaza over the next few weeks. The final dispersal of the indigenous Palestinian population into Egypt. Speak out against this genocide!
Well I for one am shocked. Shocked I tell you
they need to find a buyer first before they open it.sell it for about 120 million and state “a great day for Ireland”. that’s how these things usually work anyway.
First child patients will be adults by the time it’s open
Why did they not build that out near the M50 on a big site with plenty of parking for everyone. Easy to get to. Brought my elderly father up from Waterford to St James for a scan last week. A major hospital without any parking. Even the set down area was full.
The money pit. They keep shovelling it in…
Bad enough concerning the Children’s Hospital…The event centre in Cork again made a few headlines again a few weeks ago… It’s like Bart Simpson..Are we there yet…Photo in newspaper showed Enda Kenny, Coveney and the future deputy leader of FG Michael Martin. Kenny has gone trainspotting…People looking for Coveney as he has disappeared.. Martin can’t remember the photo… like when he stated there was no bank bailout..Jesus his memory is shot through…As for the event centre…as John Wayne would say ..Until hell freezes over… And BAM riding off into the Sunset
Value for Money for the Citizen. That’s a joke if ever I head one. Beginning to sound like a Communist State.
@Owen Mc: One thing about a communist state ..The incompetent politicians who thought this farce up..Would be up against a wall…And rightly so.
Just before the next General Election. Bronze plaques will be insitu.
Tbf it looks fabulous.
Yep. It’s its only redeeming feature so far
Lol
And it’s not even April’s fools day. How many more OT will have to be refitted out due to incompetence. This hospital will never have enough people to work there to make it a safe place for children.
Hopefully this will open soon and I really hope our children do not have to face the horrors of war that is being faced by so many across the world. Imagine if the hospital was hit by a misfired missile from a local terrorist gang and killed hundreds of its own people. Evidence is mounting and thousands here in Ireland including our politicians have been screaming that is was Israel. Nobody will apologise and try hold the right people accountable. Hatred of the people of Israel will continue and openly, because it’s acceptable. Oh and a tip to those people who have posters saying ‘queers for Palestine’ please please make your way to gaze and hold up those posters, they will just love you.
@Chris Thaunton: Could you elaborate on your statement “evidence is mounting”. If you have evidence as to who perpetrated this dispicable act of terror on a hospital packed with injured people, would you kindly share it with the group please.
@Chris Thaunton: I would like to know if you think that blowing children to smitherings in their hospital beds is a more effective and moral way of exterminating children than beheading because the people in the middle east who kill children indiscriminately can’t seem to make their minds up as to the most acceptable way to destroy a child.
You seem to be determinably accepting of the statements made by the Isreali forces on who carried out this act of terror. I worry that you may loose your ability to question obdjectively every forcibly applied statement or convincing claim that beats itself upon your eardrum. I fear that you may be led down the path of perpetual propoganda.
@Chris Thaunton: did you have to bring Israel into this. Very few irish people give a dam about Israel.
@Joe Kelly: Hi Joe, that is blatantly obvious.
@Dissasociated Follower: Hi there, yes, the mounting evidence is even now being transmitted to us on our very own state media. If they are willing to show it, that says a hell of a lot. Unfortunately the crime scene has been tampered with, to conceal evidence no doubt. There also an intercepted voice conversation that adds to the evidence. Available online from your trusted sources. I love group therapy.
@Chris Thaunton: Thanks Chris. I’ll check it out and if I can allow myself to be convinced by the evidence you mention I’ll revert back.
I’m sure though that long after our bones have been fossilised the truth will come out.
Sure it will. Sure its only taxpayers money anyway.
That would be the 30th of September so
This is worse than the paul vi snek hall architecture from the Vatican article above. Eye of the divil as opposed to Our Lady’s.. Blow it up, and redo it without the all seeing eye
Was this project even put up for bid or was it just all day work.
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