By Chinedu Onyejelem

High Court case settled for ‘significant’ amount

The decision By State services to unlawfully remove a Roma schoolgirl from her south Dublin home more than five years ago has cost taxpayers a significant sum, following a High Court settlement.

As reported by Metro Éireann over two years ago, the girl and her parents collectively and individually filed a case against several State agencies for some €1m in damages over the incident on 21 October 2013.

The girl was reunited with her parents two days after her removal from the family home, when DNA tests proved a biological link.

It is understood that lawyers for the family argued the conduct of the agencies involved in removing the then seven-year-old girl (now 12) and forcefully placing her into care was devastating and traumatising to parents and child alike.

The family also sought compensation for psychological injury and racial profiling which they said they suffered as a result, Metro Éireann reported previously.

However, it has emerged that the Garda Commissioner, Tusla, the HSE and the attorney general, who entered appearance with the State, settled the case with the Tallaght family on Monday 15 January.

Details of the compensation are confidential – as confirmed by Waheed Mudah of Kevin Tunney Solicitors, who represented the family – but it is believed the amount involved is significant.

When asked for comment, Mudah said his clients “would not wish what happened to them be visited on any other family anywhere regardless of their race, religion or colour.”

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