THERE ARE “serious concerns” for a 14-year-old boy, who was detected allegedly driving the wrong way down a motorway during the summer, when he is released from Oberstown Detention Facility early next month, a court has heard.

At an Interim Care Order (ICO) hearing, solicitor for the boy’s parents, Mary Cuffe, told the court that the boy’s upcoming release from detention at Oberstown “really is worrying.” 

The last time the boy was on a temporary emergency placement with Tusla, he was leaving the accommodation, going missing and jumping on trains and buses.

The boy remains in State care of Tusla and Cuffe told the court that she has ‘serious concerns’ after hearing an outline of Tusla’s plans for the teenager post-release from Oberstown to place the teenager in a temporary emergency placement.

Cuffe said her concern is that the placement “is going to break down again and he is going to get into trouble again”.

The boy’s Guardian ad Litem (GAL) previously told the court in July that when he hears about the teenager driving a car the wrong way down a motorway “the situation is getting worse and heading towards special care territory”.

The boy has been in the care of Tusla since April after Gardaí exercised powers under the Child Care Act when the boy “wrecked” the family home in a row sparked over a mobile phone.

A Tusla social care worker told the court that when the boy is released from Oberstown in early October, staff from the Tusla Social Work department will meet him and bring him to a Tusla temporary emergency placement.

The Tusla social care worker told the court that “we are all a little bit nervous of how things will go when he is released from Oberstown”.

The teenager has been serving a sentence in Oberstown since July concerning a criminal damage offence from last year after the boy refused an option to engage with a Probation Programme.

After hearing Cuffe’s concerns, the Tusla social care worker said: “I do acknowledge the risk and worry and we are apprehensive about what will be when he comes out.”

The Tusla worker told the court that the boy’s time at Oberstown “has been a positive experience so to speak”.

She said that the boy “is in the best place he has been at in months”.

The Tusla worker told the court that arising from the boy’s time at Oberstown the boy “looks very well at the moment. He is in a routine, getting a good night’s sleep, eating well, engaging with education and activities and is in regular contact with his family.”

The Tusla worker said that the boy “really does want to return home”.

She said that the boy does want to do what is being asked of him to come home and work and that therapeutic work continues.

The Tusla worker said that the boy does not meet the threshold for Special Care.

She said that the boy continues to meet the threshold for the continuation of an Interim Care Order (ICO).

Judge Elizabeth Healy granted Tusla’s application to extend the ICO for a further three months, and this was on consent of the boy’s parents.