Tánaiste Mary Coughlan has today confirmed that the Health Service Executive will reveal in a matter of days the number of children who have died in State care.

The failure of health chiefs to disclose details of the number of children who died in state care since 2000 is genuinely frightening, Amnesty International warned today.

The head of the HSE Professor Brendan Drumm has said reports that as many as 200 children have died in the care of the State are misleading and inaccurate.