FOLLOWING its strong defence of its role in the Kelly Fitzgerald case, the Western Health Board said yesterday that child protection work, no matter how well resourced, could never guarantee that child abuse would not take place.
"Prevention must include many other efforts in a general, societal sense," according to the board's chief executive officer, Mr Eamonn Hannan.
In its 32 page response to the independent report on the Mayo teenager's death which it considers to he inaccurate and unfair in many respects among particularly relevant points in the board's view, he said, was confirmation that "there was no causal link between abuse of Kelly and her death".
"Kelly's death was, and is, a matter of profound regret to the board and its staff, and particularly to those staff who were directly involved in the case", he added.
He stressed that from 1990, when the family moved to Mayo, until Kelly's death in 1993, the board's involvement included 80 home visits by nursing, social work and medical staff, eight school visits by board staff and a range of other interventions.
"Even after Kelly's death, it took eight court appearances before Fit Person Orders were granted, and they were granted by voluntary consent of the parents and not on the evidence available from the board", he said.
The board has been critical of media coverage, particularly in the wake of the independent inquiry team's report being published by the Oireachtas Committee on the Family, and has called on the media to give the WHB's response equal prominence.