A project set up to monitor children taken into care has released its latest information detailing incidents of neglect and cases of abuse. In Ireland, there are currently more than 5,000 children in state care.

The purpose of the Child Care Law Reporting Project (CCLRP) is to inform the public of the workings of the courts, and the constant work the experts are doing to help vulnerable children.

The return of two children to their parents after spending respectively five and three years in care since birth, and care orders for children who escaped from their home in which their mother was keeping them and not allowing them to attend school, are among the cases reported in this latest volume.

The reports issued today also include the granting of a care order for a teenage boy accused of child sex abuse and armed robberies - as well as a care order for a boy whose parents did not want to take responsibility for him.

They are among 26 cases in volume four of 2014 and bring the number of cases published in the last year to 101.

The project team is hopeful that the information and insight is helping to give greater clarity and consistency for those working in the area.

"The cases again show a wide variation in the reasons why the Child and Family Agency seeks orders protecting children, either by taking them into state care or with supervision orders", the CCLRP says.

"These range from drug or alcohol addiction on the part of parents, leading to neglect, to serious behavioural or health problems on the part of the children," it adds.

Dr Carol Coulter is director of the CCLRP and says there are many reasons why children end up in care.