Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I raised the plight of the child in question in a parliamentary question to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform on 10 December 2009.

On 16 August 2009, the Nigerian mother of this child was arrested in Dublin Airport for evading a deportation order. She was deported on 1 September. Her four-year-old son, who was born in the State, was temporarily placed in care on 16 August, and the HSE properly made an application to the children's court under the Child Care Act 1991 for directions on the child's welfare. The child was properly cared for, and prior to the airport incident, was never apart from his mother. The Children Court, required to make decisions protecting children's welfare, found he should not be deported.

Despite this, the Minister went ahead with the mother's deportation. Since August the child has been cared for in four different temporary fosterage arrangements with at least three different HSE social workers involved with the child. There is little doubt the mother was in the State illegally and had since 2005 evaded deportation. While this was unacceptable, it was not the child's fault and he should not be punished for it.

The Minister justified the unacceptable treatment of this child on the basis that he is not an Irish citizen and that a majority in 2004 voted for a constitutional change to ensure children born to foreign nationals residing for a short time in the State would not automatically acquire citizenship. I do not believe that those who voted in favour of constitutional change had anticipated that the State would kidnap a child from his mother in Dublin airport and simply deport the mother without regard to consequences for the child. Once the future care and welfare of this child became an issue that required a decision of the Children's Court, deportation of the mother should have been postponed to facilitate all issues relating to this child's welfare being given proper consideration.

In response to my Dáil question on 10 December last, the Minister stated:

An application has now been received from the court appointed guardian ad litem of the child in question requesting that the deportation order in respect of his mother be revoked to allow her to re-enter the State to be reunited with him. This application, made under section 3(11) of the Immigration Act 1999 as amended, is under consideration at present and a decision will issue shortly.

I am not aware of any decision yet having been made.

There is a total disconnect between the approach taken by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law and the Garda in the arrest and deportation of the mother and the retention of her child and the approach prescribed in the Children First: National Guidelines for the Protection and Welfare of Children, which emphasise that it is generally in the interest of a child's welfare that he or she be brought up by his or her parent or parents and when separated from them, that all necessary steps be taken to effect family reunification.

From a child welfare perspective, the disastrous events that occurred are indefensible but from a State cost perspective, thousands of euros of taxpayers money have now been spent by the HSE in maintaining a child in care who could still be residing in the State with his mother and by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the HSE in legal representation before the Children's Court.

The continuing situation can only do profound damage to this young boy's immediate and long-term welfare. The longer it goes on the greater the damage to the child's capacity as an adult to make and maintain bonds or attachments. This situation can properly be described as child abuse or as inhuman and torturous treatment by the State of an innocent child. It is an exact contradiction of what the Minister, Dermot Ahern, stated on the steps of Government Buildings on the day of publication of the Murphy commission report. On that occasion, he was critical of the church's cover up of clerical abuse and of its motivation to avoid scandal stating that "the welfare of children counted for nothing". His criticism was hollow as clearly in the Minister's view the welfare of this child also counts for nothing and is of no value and no concern. The Murphy commission report also addressed what the Minister described, on its launch, as "the failings by agencies of the State". This case classically and starkly illustrates yet another failure by State agencies to give priority to the welfare of a child.

This Minister, who is never slow to defend himself, has at no stage made any public response to questions raised by me in an article in The Irish Times on 22 December last and I can only regard this as an implicit acknowledgement by him that this mother and child should not be treated this way. I call on the Minister, in these exceptional circumstances, to allow the mother of this child return to the State to care for and bring up her son here, in the overwhelming interests of the child's welfare. The Child Care Act 1991 give priority to the protection of the welfare of children, as did the child protection guidelines of 1999 and as do the December 2009 newly-published guidelines. The Minister should prioritise the welfare of this child and bring this sorry and tragic episode to an end. He should allow the mother return to Ireland and the child to be reunited with his mother and removed from the care system. A child is currently in care who does not require the care of the State and is only getting such care because the State has deported the child's mother. It is an extraordinary and scandalous situation.

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