<p>
	A baby boy was taken into care after concerns that his teenage sister drove their mother home from a pub came to the attention of the authorities.</p>
<p>
	The mother had been in a relationship with a man she had been told to stay away from and when officials called to the house they found him hiding in the attic, a district court has heard.</p>
<p>
	Garda&iacute; called to the home on July 3 and found a &lsquo;make-shift bed&rsquo; and the man hiding by the chimney flue.</p>
<p>
	An emergency care order was executed and the baby was taken into care on July 4.</p>
<p>
	When authorities called to the home on July 4, the mother, who was in a distressed state, said her teenage daughter had taken the child for a walk.</p>
<p>
	When approached by authorities the daughter told them that her brother would be better off in care and &ldquo;would be better cared for than he was at home.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	The court heard that the man had another child and served a jail sentence for a serious assault on her when she was two years and ten months old.</p>
<p>
	The girl was also &ldquo;found to have a large amount of alcohol in her system.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	The social worker told the court that the teenage daughter told them that her mother had been drinking that day. A can of cider was found by the bed, an empty bottle of vodka in a kitchen cupboard and garda&iacute; found &lsquo;40 fresh cans&rsquo; in a black bag on top of a bin.</p>
<p>
	The teenage daughter said her mother&rsquo;s partner had been in the house since May and that when garda&iacute; or social workers called to the house he would hide in the attic.</p>
<p>
	The teenager packed up her brother&rsquo;s belongings.</p>
<p>
	She also told social workers what type of food her baby brother preferred and told her how to soothe him to sleep at night.</p>
<p>
	A social worker told the court that the mother needed to get help to overcome her alcohol issues.</p>
<p>
	She added it had been the belief of social workers that the mother was no longer drinking and that she had been in residential care to address the problem.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;This calls into question her ability to protect the child. We have met with lies and collusion and it is very difficult to assess the situation,&rdquo; she said.</p>
<p>
	She added that the mother still accepted no responsibility for having her partner on the premises.</p>
<p>
	Garda&iacute; later told the court that when they discovered her partner in her attic that she began to scream &ldquo;how is he in my house?&rdquo; and claimed that she wasn&rsquo;t aware that he was there.</p>
<p>
	The woman&rsquo;s solicitor told the court that she did take responsibility for what happened over the last number of weeks and that she did accept she covered up certain matters.</p>
<p>
	She said: &ldquo;There is a violent history among the partners in question and I would ask the court to consider that she was under a certain amount of fear and intimidation.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	In her response, the social worker said that the woman would need to prioritise the safety of her young child above and beyond anything else.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;At this stage, I recommend that she needs residential treatment for her alcohol addiction&rdquo; and that since April she had been telling counsellors that she had not been drinking.</p>
<p>
	The social worker told the court, that they had since learned that the woman had been drinking since her baby son was two or three months old.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;We now have to assess her capacity to protect her son,&rdquo; she said.</p>
<p>
	<a href="http://www.donegaldemocrat.ie/news/donegal-news/baby-boy-taken-into-hse-emergency-care-1-6171590">http://www.donegaldemocrat.ie/news/donegal-news/baby-boy-taken-into-hse-emergency-care-1-6171590</a></p>
