HSE sets up child death review panel

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) has confirmed it has set up the new child death review panel and has also named a review team to deal with the death of teenager Daniel McAnaspie.

The HSE yesterday named the members of the Review Panel for Serious Incidents and Child Deaths and also confirmed that a separate review team, drawn from the review panel, will be established to review the Daniel McAnaspie case.

The review panel of 15 members, set up under the HIQA Guidance for the HSE, will be independently chaired by Dr Helen Buckley, senior lecturer in Trinity College Dublin and expert in child protection issues.

The deputy chairman is Bill Lockhart, outgoing chief executive of the Youth Justice Agency in Northern Ireland and a meeting of the panel will be convened shortly so the group can commence its work without delay, according to the HSE.

The separate review team has been confirmed as Eamon McTernan, Liam Ó Dalaigh and Philip Mortell. The team will be charged with fully investigating the care provided to 17-year-old Daniel and the circumstances leading up to his death in accordance with new HIQA Guidance for the HSE for the Review of Serious Incidents including Deaths of Children in Care.

Daniel, originally from Finglas but who had been staying at a HSE care facility in Donabate in Dublin when he disappeared on February 26 last, was stabbed at least six times in the neck and upper body.

His body was found last week in a farmer’s field in Rathfeigh, Co Meath, off the N2 motorway.

Gardaí are carrying out a murder investigation, but Daniel’s family has criticised not just the HSE’s handling of Daniel’s care, but have also questioned why a public inquiry has not been called into his death.

The 15-member review panel is comprised of private consultant Eamon McTernan; Daughters of Charity Child and Family Service director of services Liam Ó Dálaigh; former Mid Western Health Board principal social worker Philip Mortell; Suzanne Phelan; Jennifer Gargan; Fr Peter McVerry; Paul Murray; Leonie Lunny; Owen Keenan; Claire Gormley; Betty Walsh; Michael Mulcahy; Melanie Pine; Mary Burke; and Brian Dack.