A new report into the removal of a Roma child from her home has revealed that the family had been at the centre of previous child care concerns.
The report from the Child Care Law Reporting Project dealing with the court events surrounding the case says gardaí were familiar with the family because of previous concerns surrounding the older sister of the child concerned.
It has also disclosed that the original report made to gardai was by an Estonian woman, whose concerns were based on her experience in her home country.
An Emergency Care Order for the young child was sought in the District Court by the Health Service Executive (HSE), but the application was withdrawn following a DNA test.
Test results proved that her parents were her birth parents, the HSE then withdrew their application and did not bring a further one. The young girl was reunited with her family immediately.
The Garda who invoked Section 12 of the Child Care Act 1991 - which can place the child in emergency care for up to a period of eight days once a court order has been granted - told the court that colleagues had first come into contact with the family three to four years ago in relation to another daughter, 'B', now 18, who was pregnant.
Garda told: Highly unlikely child would have blond hair & blue eyes
It was a child protection matter and there had been other child protection concerns. The family were also known to the gardaí for other reasons, and a garda had been assigned to the family for 'B' in particular.
The garda explained to the court that he went to the family home after making the enquiries with two colleagues. He and two of his colleagues were invited in and both parents were there, the report says.
They made enquiries as to the identities of all of the children. He thought 'Child B', 'Child D' and 'Child E' were there. They saw 'Child E' immediately and spoke to her.
The garda is quoted as saying "We were struck by the fact she had blond hair and blue eyes and looked nothing like her siblings or her parents".
He made contact with the assistant matron at the Coombe Hospital - who was on duty at the time - and found there was no record of [Child E] being born. However, a check later was carried out and the birth was identified.
The garda made enquiries into the genetic issue of blond hair and blue eyes. He spoke to a consultant in the A&E department of a children's hospital, who told him 'it would be highly unlikely that a child of Roma ethnicity would have blond hair and blue eyes'.
The garda said the decision to intervene was based on the girl being more comfortable using a different first name to the one on record, while the photo on the passport presented by her parents did not seem to resemble the girl at her current age.
The social worker appointed to the case agreed with the garda that there was a flight risk from leaving the child with her parents, while results of a DNA test were processed.
The garda believed that there was a "serious and immediate risk the child would leave after I left the house". He decided to invoke Section 12 of the Act, taking the child into care and handing the child to the HSE.
The judge in the case commented "I can only express the hope that the family will be able to escape the glare of publicity as quickly as they came into it, and they will be able to settle down and get one with their lives".
