A Dublin District Court review has found that the Child and Family Agency failed to comply with 859 court directions affecting 471 children under care orders granted in the capital.
Judge Conor Fottrell said the problems went significantly beyond the original concern that children had been left without allocated social workers. A court-ordered review completed in June 2025 found that 395 children had gone more than four weeks without an allocated social worker.
It also identified 245 children whose child-in-care reviews were not held within the statutory timeframe, 92 whose foster placements were not long-term matched within the period directed by the court and 79 whose foster placements lacked an allocated fostering link worker for more than four weeks.
The review covered 1,052 children currently subject to care orders granted by the court over the previous 15 years. Many of the 471 affected children had more than one direction breached. As of the report, 87 cases still had to be re-entered before the court.
The issue first came to the court's attention in early 2024. It initially understood that about 250 children lacked allocated social workers. The court subsequently required a wider review of compliance with all directions contained in its care orders.
Child and Family Agency chief executive Kate Duggan told the court that she had first become aware in December 2022 of an issue involving about 40 children and failures to re-enter cases. She said she had regarded it as an operational matter at the time and acknowledged that the issue should have been escalated to senior management and the board.
The Agency apologised to the court, affected children and parents and commissioned an external review. It also outlined planned changes to its case-management system, with the first phase due in September 2025.
Judge Fottrell said affected cases would remain under court review as necessary. A court letter explaining what happened is also to be placed on the files of the 395 children who lacked an allocated social worker.