A new report into the removal of a Roma child from her home in Dublin has revealed that the family had been at the centre of previous childcare concerns.
The report from the Child Care Law Reporting Project, dealing with the court events surrounding the case, says Gardaí were familiar with the family because of previous concerns surrounding the girl's older sister.
It has also disclosed that the original report made to gardaí was by an Estonian woman whose concerns were based on her experience in her home country.
The report is the first time that details of the courtroom events surrounding the case can be released to the public.
The report also shows that children in some parts of Ireland are much more likely than others to be the subject of court action to move them into the care of the HSE.
The project's director Dr Carol Coulter said that this could be because of different standards being applied in different towns.
“The other question that does arise, and I think perhaps is a bit worrying, is that possibly different thresholds apply in different parts of the country, so that children in a set of circumstances in one part of the country would be taken into care, and in a different part of the country, in similar circumstances, would not be taken into care,” she said.