PRESS CONFERENCE:IT WAS intolerable that a young girl had died in 2002 but eight years later the Government was "essentially paralysed" regarding the case, Fine Gael spokesman on children Alan Shatter TD has said.
The news media were informed an hour in advance yesterday morning that Fine Gael would be holding a news conference at a Dublin hotel “to release a report suppressed by Government containing scandalous findings”.
Mr Shatter said: “Normally documents that are laid before the Dáil or the Seanad are laid by Government Ministers or by joint Oireachtas committees. On this occasion the document is being laid by me on the order paper of both Houses on behalf of the Fine Gael party.”
He summarised a report into the case of Tracey Fay (1983-2002), whom he referred to as “TF”, a Dublin-born teenager whose troubled life and early death were, in the words of Mr Shatter, “a litany of failures of the State and its agencies”.
He said that the report documented “the abject failure of the Eastern Health Board [now subsumed into the Health Service Executive (HSE)] to provide the care required to a vulnerable child who became a troubled teenager at serious risk”.
The report was commissioned by the Eastern Health Board, “following the death of TF and we believe that the report commissioned was finalised in or about December 2008. The review not only documents the dysfunctional and chaotic approach taken by the Eastern Health Board to addressing the needs of TF but also contains 47 recommend-ations that require implementation.”
In early March 2009, he said, “I called in the Dáil for publication of the report into the death of TF. On October 6th, 2009 the Minister for Children finally promised that the report would be published.
“Despite the promise made, neither the Minister nor the HSE have to date published this important report. Fine Gael believes it to be in the public interest that the report be fully published.
“I just don’t believe it’s tolerable that a young girl dies in 2002 and the Government is essentially paralysed in changing things for the following eight years.”
Last night, the HSE expressed “serious concern” about what it described as “the untimely publication” of the report.
“The HSE strongly refutes any suggestion that it was suppressing this report, in fact the HSE had given a commitment to publish the report in consultation with the family, a process which is still ongoing.”
The statement added that all of the recommendations were being implemented: “At the time of TF’s death she did not have a personal care plan which is now the case for every child in care.”
Based on this multi-agency, multi-disciplinary care plan a decision was made as to the best placement for the child and what services were necessary. “That this process which was not available for TF’s benefit is deeply regrettable,” the HSE statement said.
Minister of State for Children and Youth Affairs Barry Andrews said: “Since the report was finalised, the HSE has been in touch with the mother of the girl at the centre of the report and has been seeking to share the full content of the report with her before publication. Due to the mother’s illness, this consultation could not take place. The lengthy delay in preparing a report of this nature cannot be defended. There is an urgent need to reform and standardise the way in which these investigations take place.”
Mr Andrews said that “the absence of a care plan that was the subject of regular reviews was a clear failing. There was inappropriate use of short-term hostels and bed and breakfasts as accommodation. The HSE has ended the practice.”