THE GOVERNMENT will have to rush through an urgent amendment to the Child Care Act to allow an independent inquiry get access to files on the deaths of children in State care.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen said yesterday he believed legislation would be required to enable the Health Service Executive hand over relevant information on vulnerable children to the two-person inquiry by children’s law expert Geoffrey Shannon and Norah Gibbons of Barnardos.
Mr Cowen also admitted in the Dáil yesterday that the HSE had been unable to tell the Government how many children had died in State care and would not be in a position to compile a full list until the end of June.
Reacting in the Dáil to the Taoiseach’s admission, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny described it as unbelievable. “It is incredible that on a matter as sensitive and as important as that that the head of State does not have the information on how many children have died,” said Mr Kenny.
“This debacle is one of the most monumental failures in the history of the State,” he added.
Mr Cowen said the HSE had so far confirmed that 23 children had died in the care of the State in the past decade but had been unable to say how many more have died.
“I do not suggest that it is something about which I am happy or about which the Government is happy. One would have hoped it was available immediately,” he said.
Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore also said the lack of information was astonishing. He said that if media reports of 200 children dying in State care over 10 years were true, it represented one death for every 285 children in care which was a multiple of 10 of the incidence of childhood mortality.
In a separate development, the in camera rule was lifted in the case of the late Daniel McAnaspie in the District Court yesterday following an application by The Irish Times. This is the first time reporting of child care proceedings in the District Court has been permitted.
The body of Daniel McAnaspie was found in a drain in Co Meath earlier this month. He had been stabbed. He had been in the care of the HSE since 2003, but had gone missing in February.
In the child care court of the Dublin District Court yesterday Judge Brendan Toale also permitted The Irish Times to report the fact that the court ordered the release of the HSE’s archive on the child to the Garda Síochána and to the Minister for Children.
A Government spokesman said the Government only became aware yesterday about the complexity of the legal obstacles preventing the HSE from passing on the files.
He could not say why the full information was conveyed by the HSE only this week over two months after the review group was set up the Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews on March 8th last.
Mr Andrews briefed the Cabinet about the situation yesterday. Officials from the Department of Health, the HSE and the Attorney General’s office met later yesterday to discuss the problem. The meeting concluded that legislation was needed to overcome four separate legal obstacles.