The judge in a rural town extended a one-year care order in respect of a preschool age child with the consent of the child’s parents. The Child and Family Agency (CFA) solicitor told the court work was still ongoing on reunification and the plan was for the child to return to his family next year. He said the case was going well and the CFA “were hoping to get there.”
The judge said he had read the reports and the case was going in the right direction. He hoped the mother was attending rehabilitation treatment. “There was no difference between the social work and GAL reports which were 90 per cent positive, but there was a residual worry”, he said.
The mother was engaging with rehabilitation, and attending her GP and Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) consistently, her solicitor told the court. The father told the judge when asked that he was doing well and attending an outpatient service. Social work and guardian ad litem (GAL) reports were handed up to the court.
Both solicitors for the mother and father confirmed the parents were consenting to a six-month extension of the care order.
