Expert links alcohol abuse with child deaths

One of the country’s leading child experts has called for an “un-ambivalent” political response to Ireland’s alcohol problem.

Geoffrey Shannon said failure to tackle alcohol abuse at an early stage was a common feature in many of the files on the deaths of 196 children in state care between 2000 and 2010.

Mr Shannon, the Government’s special rapporteur on child protection, is co-author of the Independent Child Death Review, which exposed the horrific domestic situations children were left in.