Deaths of five children in care never reviewed

THE circumstances in which five children died while in state care were never reviewed, the Government has admitted.

The five were among 23 children who died while in, or shortly after leaving, State care since 2000.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has not published a report into any of the 23 deaths, prompting claims of a “cover-up” yesterday when a special debate was held in the Dáil.

During the debate, Children’s Minister Barry Andrews said nine of the 23 deaths were due to natural causes, as the children had pre-existing medical conditions, such as leukaemia.

Reviews were ongoing in eight more, all stemming from 2006 or later, he said.

But the remaining six cases were ones where “no further action” was anticipated. All six predated 2006, and a confidential report had been completed in one of them.

But in the remaining five, no reviews had taken place.

The five cases involved:

* An overdose in 2000. A review was “deemed at that time not to be necessary”.

* An overdose in 2000.

* An overdose in 2005.

* A suicide in 2000.

* hit-and-run in 2002.

Mr Andrews said procedures had since changed, and the state “wouldn’t ignore the duty to investigate these types of cases now”.

Following opposition demands, the minister agreed reviews should take place in the five cases. “I think that’s reasonable – I think it’s something we could do.”

Mr Andrews pointed out that details of two of the five cases had been sent last year to the independent agency drawing up guidelines on how reviews of deaths in care should be handled.

It emerged separately yesterday that the HSE will still be in charge of investigating itself in certain cases of child death when those guidelines are published next week.

Mr Andrews said all 23 deaths had been “tragic” but stressed there was “no intention whatsoever to cover up these cases”.

In the cases where investigations were taking place, “it is my intention that all of these reports would be put into the public domain in so far as they are possible”. But he stressed the public’s right to know must be balanced with the rights of parties affected by the reports.

It came as the HSE confirmed it had not published a single report into the death of any of the children in its care since its establishment in 2005 – a situation described as “inexcusable” by Fine Gael TD Bernard Allen. Labour’s Joan Burton expressed fears of a “culture of secrecy” within the HSE.

The debate was prompted by Fine Gael’s decision to make public one unpublished report, which examined the death of Tracey Fay, an 18-year-old mother of two, who died of an overdose while in “chaotic” state care in 2002.