The High Court has refused a mother permission to seek judicial review of Circuit Court decisions upholding care orders for two of her daughters, after finding that the grounds she advanced did not make out an arguable case.
In a judgment delivered on 31 July 2018, Mr Justice MacGrath allowed more time to bring the challenge, but only insofar as it concerned three Circuit Court orders made on 26 September 2017. The time extension did not cover the wider challenge to District Court orders sought in her application.
The mother had sought to set aside care-related orders made between November 2016 and November 2017, have her three daughters returned to her care, and obtain orders preventing what she described as further harassment. Her specific challenge concerned a Circuit Court judge’s dismissal of three appeals relating to 18 District Court orders for two daughters. A third daughter had reached adulthood and was no longer subject to a care order.
The mother alleged, among other things, that the Circuit Court judge was biased, that she had not received a fair hearing, and that witnesses were not present. The Child and Family Agency disputed her account. Its solicitor said arrangements had been made for the Circuit Court appeal to be heard before a District Court hearing scheduled for the same day. The judgment records that the mother attended the Circuit Court, asked the judge to recuse himself, and left after he declined. It also records that she told the High Court she had made no application to the Circuit Court about the subpoenas or witnesses.
The judge concluded that an earlier adverse decision, by itself, did not establish bias. On the witness issue, he found that the mother had left before making an application about the subpoenas, so she had not shown an arguable case on that ground.
The Director of Public Prosecutions had also been named as a respondent. The court held that the allegations concerned operational actions attributed to gardaí and did not establish a stateable judicial review case against the DPP. It expressed no opinion on whether there might be liability for those alleged actions elsewhere.
The court refused leave to apply for judicial review. The ruling was a decision on whether the case could proceed by judicial review; it did not determine the underlying allegations about the care proceedings or the alleged actions of gardaí.