Dublin District Court heard the mother of a teenage girl was 'left to walk the streets looking for her' after she repeatedly left her unregulated placement. The court heard his parents “offered no explanation” as to how their son was injured to an emergency department doctor, saying they “did not know what happened”. The court heard [he] was now thriving in foster care,” said a report on the case published on Monday. Dublin District Court heard the girl was in what is known as a special emergency arrangement (SEA) – a placement that falls outside statutory regulations, and had “repeatedly gone missing”. In another case a District Court judge said Ireland did not “want to import the mores of a third-world country” when hearing the case of another unaccompanied minor.

Source: The Irish Times January 19, 2026 08:05 UTC