Judge expresses ‘grave disappointment’ after care watchdog shelved

The president of the District Court has expressed his “grave disappointment and concern” to the Government over the effective “closure” of an organisation that holds the State to account by monitoring court cases involving vulnerable children in care, correspondence shows.
The Child Law Project has for more than a decade produced regular reports detailing court cases involving children in the care system, which often expose failings on the part of authorities such as Tusla, the child and family agency. It has not sent researchers to observe court proceedings since the middle of this year, as funding from the Department of Children is to run out this month.
In a June 19th letter, Judge Paul Kelly, president of the District Court, told Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman the suspension of the reporting project was a “most unwelcome development”. In the letter, seen by The Irish Times, the senior judge expressed his “grave disappointment and concern” at the situation.
Judge Kelly said the project had shone a light into a “very dark” corner of the court system, covering child-protection cases that involved shocking and disturbing evidence. The Child Law Project had provided “excellent value for money” at a modest cost to the State, he wrote.
The reports published by the project were of “immense benefit” to judges in the District Court and elsewhere, as well as lawyers, social workers, academics and policymakers, he said. “Even at this late stage I ask that you reconsider the matter and provide the necessary resources to enable the project to continue what I feel is essential work,” Judge Kelly said.
[ Inside the childcare courts: ‘Making money from the misery of children – that’s distasteful’Opens in new window ]
The initiative, originally called the Child Care Law Reporting Project, was set up in 2012 and funded by a mix of both State and philanthropic funds. In recent years it has been directly funded by the department, with its three-year contract worth €200,000 a year ending this month. It is to publish a final report in the coming weeks.
During a meeting in March, Mr O’Gorman informed the organisation a new contract to continue to run the service would not be available to bid for before their funding ran out.
A May 6th department briefing note for the Minister said due to “significant” other work pressures, officials had only recently started drawing up a new tender, to seek bidders for the new contract.
Maria Corbett, chief executive of the Child Law Project, sought an update in late May, asking when the competition for the new contract might go live. The organisation’s board was of the view that the monitoring of cases was “essential” to provide transparency in the care system, she wrote.
In a July 30th response, the department said it was unable to provide a timeline for when the process might begin. “I understand that in the meeting of March 26th, the Minister had also informed you of the potential for a gap between the conclusion of the current phase of the contract and a future tender,” an official wrote.
The correspondence and other internal records were released to The Irish Times following a Freedom of Information Act request. The process of taking bids for the new contract has not yet started, and when it does it will likely take at least a number of months before funding is awarded.
Mr O’Gorman had confirmed it was his intention “that funding will be made available for a future iteration of the court reporting project, which will be awarded by his department following a competitive procurement process”, a spokeswoman said. “Preparatory work is under way within the Department of Children in advance of this new procurement process.”