Ms Tanya Ward:

It is possible that a child has an appointed guardian as some of these children do get into foster care. Obviously, this is the best outcome. Unless the foster carer has appointed a guardian it will be the social worker who will have responsibility for lodging the application. The issue arises if the social worker has decided not to do so and we hear various reasons for having made this decision. It might be because of welfare or because they are concerned about the nature of the protection process and do not want to put the child through it. However, they are not balancing the protection rights of the child. It is in the child's best interest to have the application made as early as possible and it is up to the State to adapt its system to ensure it is as child friendly as possible. Children can undergo these situations. Children are very resilient and often refugee children are more resilient than others. We have to look at them in this way.

A recommendation made in the McMahon report was that social workers should obtain legal advice before making this decision. There is a provision in the recent International Protection Act on this. It states the social worker may obtain legal advice. We just do not know what is happening. We know from our experience on the ground and from the helpline that protection applications are still not being lodged. It is something that needs to be opened up because we think those decisions are not being made in the best interests of children. I do not know whether they need legislation but they certainly need guidance on making the decision.