U-turn as state forces HSE to hand over files

THE Government was forced into an embarrassing U-turn last night as it readied emergency legislation that will force the HSE to reveal the number of children who died in state care during the past decade.

Opposition leaders expressed outrage at the situation, as less than 24 hours after Children’s Minister Barry Andrews insisted no new legislation was needed, the Taoiseach said measures are to be pushed through the Dáil to get the HSE to hand relevant files to a Government probe.

Fergus Finlay of Barnardos described the move as “mind boggling”.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore also said that if any set of parents had acted as negligently as the state towards youngsters in its care, the children would be taken away from them.

Brian Cowen insisted the HSE was not “thumbing its nose” at the inquiry, but admitted he could not say if as many as 200 children died in state care. He said the figure was still being “validated” and “worked on”, and the HSE could only confirm 23 deaths in care.

The Taoiseach said he was “not happy” with the lack of information.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said it was “unbelievable” the state did not know how many children had died in its care.

Despite the inquiry into care deaths being set up in early March, only yesterday did the Cabinet opt to bring in legal amendments to force the HSE to hand over files by the end of June.

This followed a stand-off between Mr Andrews and the HSE which prompted Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny to brand the HSE “dysfunctional” and the minister “useless”.

Legal issues regarding non-public identification of dead individuals and sections of the 1991 Child Care Act are being used by the HSE as reasons for its non-sharing of information, but the HSE has already published two reports on children who died while under its care.

The latest teenager to die while in state care was 17-year-old Daniel McAnaspie, from Finglas, Dublin, whose stabbed body was found dumped in a drain on farmland in Co Meath earlier this month.

Child-law expert Geoffrey Shannon and Norah Gibbons of Barnardos were asked in March to review HSE inquiries into deaths of children in care over the past decade but have yet to receive a single file.