Experts: No whitewash in review into deaths

THE childcare experts appointed to an independent panel to review the deaths of children in the care of the state have vowed to be fearless in pursuing the truth behind the tragedies.

Family law expert Geoffrey Shannon and Barnardos director of advocacy Norah Gibbons also said they would seek an extension of the terms of reference guiding their review if they uncovered evidence that they were other cases they should be examining.

Mr Shannon and Ms Gibbons are part of the Child Death Review Group established by Children’s Minister Barry Andrews on Monday night.

They will be joined by an as yet unnamed third person, an expert of “international standing”, in the coming weeks.

Their brief is to review Health Service Executive files on the deaths of 23 children who were in the care of the state over the past 10 years. Controversy has been raging for the past week since the number of deaths was made public along with the fact that files and inquiry reports exist in the HSE but were never published.

Mr Shannon said the group would look at cases outside the 23 confirmed so far if details came to light. “At the moment we are dealing with 23 cases but if further information arises that requires the group to look at, we will do that,” he said.

“We will be fearless in ensuring that this inquiry is robust. If we feel constrained by the terms of reference we will ask the minister to expand the terms of reference.”

The group will seek to interview HSE staff where required but they do not have legal powers to compel individuals to cooperate. However, they said they were committed to making all the information they gathered public.

“This will not be a whitewash. Unless there are privacy issues it is our hope that these reports will be published in full,” Mr Shannon said.

Ms Gibbons said the families concerned would be invited to play a part in the review. “We will be inviting the families of the children whose cases come to us to come and speak to us in confidence about what happened or what they understand about what happened. We will not be laying down any tramlines for them to stick to.”

The group have yet to be given an office or access to the files but Ms Gibbons said they had been assured they would be given all the resources needed for their work and that they had the full support of the HSE.

They expect to begin in a matter of weeks.