A number of members at last night's meeting of the Eastern Regional Health Authority criticised media reporting of the case involving a 16-year-old homeless girl who had been raped and tortured by her father.
Mr Eamonn O'Brien (Labour) said the media had failed the family by publicising the issue. "The media has failed the family by highlighting all that is bad about the family and all that the North Area Health Board did wrong," he said.
Mr O'Brien said such stories were run because August was approaching and politicians were on holiday.
"We need a good PR response to what is going on in the media . . . We need to speak up to the media and say `Stop knocking us'," he added.
Mr Larry Butler (Fianna Fail) said he agreed with Mr O'Brien in that the health authority "had lost the media battle". He said the only thing which made headline were shocking issues. "We need to be equipped with proper information to give the media a proper indication of work done," he said.
Mr Jim Reilly (Fine Gael) said comments raised by the Minister of State, Ms Mary Hanafin, on television on Monday night "didn't help the situation". Mr Reilly said if the media had waited until yesterday evening or today to print the story "they might have drawn a different conclusion".
Referring to homelessness, Mr Reilly said: "It's not something which we are indifferent to. It's not as great a disaster in numerical terms, but it certainly is in this individual case."
He said the girl had been offered a choice of accommodation but had refused it. "We can't force people into a situation they don't want to be in," Mr Reilly added.
Mr Eric Byrne said he wanted to distance himself from media criticism at the meeting as the media were not an homogenous group. He said the sentencing of the girl's father and story about her being homeless had coincided. "Is there some other agenda being played here?" he asked.
Mr Gerry McGuire said millions of pounds had been spent on youth homelessness but "this was an aspect the media did not highlight".
Ms Terese Ridge said an emergency homeless unit should be set up to deal with crisis cases. "I'm fed up with people sitting down and talking about it," she added.
The ERHA chairman, Mr Ivor Callely, said he and the chief executive, Mr Donal O'Shea, were to meet the Minister for Health this week about the case.