The Covid 19 emergency poses huge challenges for the whole of Irish society, including those whose responsibility it is to promote the welfare of children and protect those among them who are vulnerable. These challenges will be met by various State agencies and by organisations in the voluntary sector, and already a number of significant measures have been taken to address them.
However, as the crisis continues to unfold new issues will come to the fore, and the management of existing measures will come under scrutiny, including by the courts. The Child Law Project has already made two sets of Observations relating to some of the issues that have arisen at the early weeks of the pandemic, and will report on any cases relating to Covid 19 that are addressed by the courts. Given the urgent nature of such cases, we did not wait for the scheduled publication of our next volume of reports, but rather reported them as soon as possible after they took place, in order to inform decision-making.
We publish below the two Observations we have made to date, and will publish further Observations and court reports under this heading as they arise.
- Case Report 9: District Court concerned about delays in assessments due to Covid-19
- Case Report 8: No “unnecessary” contact between mother and baby during pandemic
- Case Report 7: Care order extended and access reduced where assessments delayed and access disrupted by Covid-19
- Case Report 6: Court heard of foster carer’s fears of Covid arising from access
- Case Report 5: Novel issues in child care proceedings raised by Covid crisis
- Case Report 4: Covid restrictions pose challenges for hearing childcare cases
- Case Report 3: Covid crisis gives rise to access dispute
- Case Report 2: Full day’s remote hearings planned following remote “call-over” in Dublin.
- Case Report 1: Interim care order granted in first ever virtual hearing
- CCLRP Observations on Covid-19 Roadmap for Reopening May 2020
- CCLRP Observations on Covid-19 Pandemic April 2020
